Maurice Tempelsman

Maurice Tempelsman, the enigmatic and politically connected Belgian-American diamond magnate who drew news media scrutiny for his business dealings in Africa and was Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s companion for more than a decade before her death in 1994, died in August 2025 in Manhattan. He was 95 Tempelsman was Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lazare Kaplan International Inc., the largest cutter and polisher of “ideal cut” diamonds in the United States. Tempelsman served on the International Advisory Council of the American Stock Exchange. He was elected as Chairman of the Corporate Council on Africa from 1999 – 2002 and again from 2007 – 2008 and served as Chairman Emeritus thereafter. He was the longest serving trustee (1966-2012), and past Chairman, of The Africa-America Institute, and he was a trustee of the Eurasia Foundation. Mr. Tempelsman was a Director of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and chaired the NDI’s Africa subcommittee. He is a director of the Center for National Policy, the Business Council for International Understanding, the U.S.-Russia Business Council and the King Baudouin Foundation United States. He was Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the Harvard AIDS Institute, and he is an honorary trustee and honorary member of the corporation of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a director of The Academy of American Poets, Mr. Tempelsman also serves as a trustee of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Mr. Tempelsman has served on several Presidential Commissions including the President’s Commission for the Observance of Human Rights, the Citizen’s Advisory Board of Youth Opportunities and the National Highway Safety Advisory Committee, and was appointed by Governor Carey to the New York Council on International Business. Born in Belgium in 1929, Mr. Tempelsman came to the United States as a child. He attended New York public schools and New York University. He has three children. He is fluent in several languages, and his interests include the fields of history, archaeology and sailing. Tempelsman was best known as the final companion of Jackie. After Mrs. Onassis was told she had lymphatic cancer in the winter of 1993, Mr. Tempelsman moved his office into her apartment and escorted her to and from the hospital.. Lilly Burkos and Tempelsman married in 1949 and had three children, Rena, Leon and Marcy. She died in 2022. In addition to his son, Leon, his survivors include two daughters, Rena and Marcy; six grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.