Maurice Tempelsman, the former chairman of diamond manufacturer Lazare Kaplan and noted industry statesman, died of complications from a fall on Aug. 23—three days before his 96th birthday.
Outside the industry, Tempelsman was best known as the companion of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis for over a decade. Tempelsman and the former first lady “shared an interest in art, culture, music, the French language (in which they were both fluent) and the finer things in life,” according to People.
While Tempelsman generally avoided the spotlight—and never spoke publicly about his relationship with Onassis—he took a lead role in her 1994 funeral, reading one of her favorite poems, “Ithaka” by C. P. Cavafy.
Born in Antwerp, Tempelsman came to the United States in 1940. As a young man, he began working for his father’s diamond business, according to The New York Times. He traveled extensively in Africa and forged close contacts with many of the continent’s leaders, sometimes acting as an intermediary for the U.S. government.
“He’s the kind of guy who, when you’re trying to figure out what the hell is going on in a country, you can call on the phone and he invariably has something interesting to say,” Chester Crocker, former U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs, told Newsweek in 1994.
In 1984, Tempelsman’s family acquired a majority interest in famed diamond company Lazare Kaplan International (LKI), which remains the only natural diamond wholesaler to ever be traded on a U.S. stock exchange. (It was delisted in 2010.)
With his son Leon as CEO, Tempelsman turned LKI into an industry trailblazer. It was of the earliest companies to brand itself and a pioneer in publicizing the “Ideal Cut.” It was also a De Beers sightholder and helped establish some of Africa’s earliest cutting factories.
In 2000, when the industry was under fire for dealing in conflict diamonds, Lazare Kaplan’s lawyer, Theodore Sorensen, led a meeting in Kimberley, South Africa, of government and NGO officials that ultimately led to the development of the Kimberley Process.
Tempelsman kept a low profile in his personal life, but he often addressed industry forums like the GIA Symposium and World Diamond Council.
In 2015, JCK published a piece he wrote decrying the “greed” and “unethical conduct” in the hacking of GIA’s database.
Marcee Feinberg, LKI’s former vice president, tells JCK she considered it “a real privilege to have worked with such an extraordinary man. When MT spoke with you, it felt like you were the only person in the room—he gave you his full attention.”
She says she was just about to send Tempelsman a birthday card when he died.
“Though he lived a long and full life, I’m still heartbroken,” Feinberg adds. “Someone like that you think would live forever.… He was one of the brightest people I’ve ever met. He spoke his mind, always with grace and honesty, and carried himself like a true gentleman.”
Maurice Tempelsman and former LKI vice president Marcee Feinberg
Former World Diamond Council president Eli Izhakoff remembers Tempelsman as “one of a kind in our industry, very eloquent, elegant, and polite.”
Beyond the diamond business, Tempelsman served two terms as chair of the Corporate Council on Africa, chaired the international advisory council of the Harvard AIDS Initiative, and was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
The New York Times reported that Tempelsman is survived by son Leon, daughters Rena and Marcy, six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife Lilly Bucholz, whom he married in 1949 and never divorced, and his son-in-law Bob Speisman, LKI’s former executive vice president, who was killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In 2002, when Speisman was posthumously given the American Gem Society’s Robert M. Shipley Award, Tempelsman accepted on the family’s behalf, and, as a tribute to Speisman, high-fived people on the podium.
Tempelsman and RX Global vice president Sarin Bachmann at the JCK show in 2015
Interviewed by Martin Rapaport in 1990, Tempelsman was asked for advice for a “young gemologist.” He responded by quoting philosopher Joseph Campbell: “Follow your bliss.”
(Top photo courtesy of Eli Izhakoff; other photos courtesy of Marcee Feinberg)