John Clifton Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, died today in Bryn Mawr, Pa., announced The Vanguard Group. He was 89.

The cause of his death was cancer, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. He suffered the first of at least six heart attacks at age 31. In 1967 he had a pacemaker installed, and in 1996 he received a heart transplant.

Bogle had legendary status in the American investment community, largely because of two towering achievements: He introduced the first index mutual fund for investors and, in the face of skeptics, stood behind the concept until it gained widespread acceptance; and he drove down costs across the mutual fund industry by ceaselessly campaigning in the interests of investors. Vanguard, the company he founded to embody his philosophy, is now one of the largest investment management firms in the world.

“Jack Bogle made an impact on not only the entire investment industry, but more importantly, on the lives of countless individuals saving for their futures or their children’s futures,” said Vanguard CEO Tim Buckley in a prepared statement. “He was a tremendously intelligent, driven, and talented visionary whose ideas completely changed the way we invest. We are honored to continue his legacy of giving every investor ‘a fair shake.’”            

Bogle’s formula turned Vanguard into the largest U.S. manager of stock and bond funds.

“He was a towering figure,” Burton Malkiel, a Princeton University economics professor and Vanguard board member since 1977, said in an interview. “The mutual-funds industry is infinitely better because of Jack Bogle.”

A champion of the individual investor, Bogle is widely credited with helping to bring increased disclosure about mutual fund costs and performance to the public. His commitment to safeguarding investors' interests often prompted him to speak out against practices that were common among his peers in other mutual fund organizations.

“The mutual-fund industry is now dominated by giant, publicly held financial conglomerates run by businessmen hell bent on earning a return on the firm’s capital, not the return on the capital invested by the fund shareholders,” Bogle said in a 2006 speech at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

He told Bloomberg Television in December 2008 that the U.S. government’s bailouts of companies including American International Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. had “deeply discredited” capitalism. At a February 2009 congressional hearing, he warned that the U.S. retirement system “is imperiled, headed for a serious train wreck.” Months later he filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court siding with investors who were challenging fees charged by fund managers.

At industry events and other public appearances, Bogle often drew admirers while making fund company executives uncomfortable. Some fans called him “St. Jack of the mutual-fund industry.”

“He stood up and said what he believed was right, and it cost him friendships in the fund industry,” Don Phillips, managing director at Morningstar, said in an interview.

At a conference hosted by Morningstar in May 2009, Bogle criticized asset managers for paying themselves too much. “Compensation is totally, ridiculously out of control,” he said. “Money managers should return to stewardship and trusteeship.”

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett praised Bogle in his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders in early 2017.

“If a statue is ever erected to honor the person who has done the most for American investors, the hands down choice should be Jack Bogle,” Buffett wrote. “He has the satisfaction of knowing that he helped millions of investors realize far better returns on their savings than they otherwise would have earned. He is a hero to them and to me.”

Getting Started

Bogle began his career in 1951 after graduating magna cum laude in economics from Princeton University. His senior thesis on mutual funds had caught the eye of fellow Princeton alumnus Walter L. Morgan, who had founded Wellington Fund, the nation’s oldest balanced fund, in 1929 and was one of the deans of the mutual fund industry. Morgan hired the ambitious 22-year-old for his Philadelphia-based investment management firm, Wellington Management Company.

Bogle ended up becoming the driving force behind Wellington’s growth into a mutual fund family after he persuaded Morgan, in the late 1950s, to start an equity fund that would complement Wellington Fund. Windsor Fund, a value-oriented equity fund, debuted in 1958.

In 1967, Bogle led the merger of Wellington Management Company with the Boston investment firm Thorndike, Doran, Paine & Lewis (TDPL). Seven years later, a management dispute with the principals of TDPL led Bogle to form Vanguard in September 1974 to handle the administrative functions of Wellington’s funds, while TDPL/Wellington Management would retain the investment management and distribution duties. The Vanguard Group of Investment Companies commenced operations on May 1, 1975.

A student of British naval history, Bogle continued Wellington’s Napoleonic-Wars theme by naming the newly independent group of funds “Vanguard,” after the flagship of Admiral Horatio Nelson’s fleet in the Battle of the Nile in 1798. Bogle’s office was stuffed with decorations, from pillows and paintings to ship models and statuettes, that commemorated Nelson and his fleet.

In 1977, the fund’s board took control of sales of the funds from Wellington, which had distributed them through brokers. Vanguard funds were then sold directly to customers as no-load shares, meaning investors bought them without paying broker commissions.

Vanguard introduced a money-market fund in 1975 and bond funds in 1977, run by outside managers. In 1981, Vanguard hired its own staff of investment professionals to run those funds. Investment-management services were provided to the funds at cost, making the funds’ expenses among the lowest in the industry.

Management Battle

Bogle remained Vanguard’s CEO until 1996, when he handed the post to his designated successor, John Brennan. Bogle remained chairman of the board and began squabbling with Brennan over the company’s growth plans, with Bogle questioning Brennan’s plans to offer discount brokerage services and develop a so-called supermarket for online mutual fund shopping.

After reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 in 2000, Bogle asked the Vanguard board to waive the rule for him. It refused, in what was seen as a decision cementing Brennan’s authority at the firm.

Bogle’s books on investing included “Enough: True Measures of Money, Business, and Life” published in 2008 and “The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism” in 2005.

Fortune Magazine named him one of four “Giants of the Investment Industry of the 20th Century” in 1999. Time named him one of the world’s 100 most powerful and influential people in 2004.

Bogle and his wife, the former Eve Sherrerd, had six children: Barbara, Jean, Nancy, Sandra, Andrew and John Jr., according to Marquis Who’s Who. John Bogle Jr. is a limited partner at Bogle Investment Management, a Newton, Massachusetts, firm that follows an active stock picking approach.

In January 1996, Bogle passed the reins of Vanguard to his hand-picked successor, John J. Brennan, who joined the company in 1982 as Mr. Bogle’s assistant. The following month, Bogle underwent heart transplant surgery. A few months later, he was back in the office, writing and speaking about issues of importance to mutual fund investors.

In December 1999, he stepped down from the Vanguard board of directors and created the Bogle Financial Markets Resource Center, a Vanguard-supported venture. Bogle worked as the center’s president—analyzing issues affecting the financial markets, mutual funds, and investors through books, articles, and public speeches—until his death. He wrote 12 books, selling over 1.1 million copies worldwide.