WACO (October 26, 2009)—A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in the Paul J. Meyer Arena of Baylor University’s Ferrell Center for longtime Waco businessman and philanthropist Paul J. Meyer, who died Monday morning after a battle with cancer.

Visitation will follow in the Stone Room at the Ferrell Center.

Meyer, the founder of Success Motivation Institute who donated millions mainly to Waco-area charities and organizations, died early Monday morning at his home in Waco.

He was 81.

The Paul & Jane Meyer Family Foundation, which Meyer launched in 1984, has given away at least $65 million, and about 90 percent of it has gone to groups in the Waco area including Baylor University, the Boy Scouts of America and the Passport for Success program, which provides college scholarships for high school graduates from low-income families.

“Paul Meyer’s life not only impacted every person he came into contact with but, through his uncompromising generosity, his legacy will continue to touch the lives of countless Baylor students and faculty,” said Dr. David E. Garland, Baylor’s interim president and dean of Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary.

“Baylor has lost both a pioneer and a loyal friend.”

Meyer was born on May 21, 1928 and grew up in California.

By the age of 25, he was the highest-paid insurance salesman in the U.S.

He was a millionaire by the time he was 27.

He moved to Waco in 1958 to work as a sales executive for a fledgling Christian publishing company called Word Records and two years later he founded SMI, in the process becoming one of the fathers of the personal development industry.

Since 1960, sales of all SMI materials have topped $3 billion and the materials are sold in more than 60 countries, according to the company’s Web site.

Pictures and information about the organizations large and small that have benefitted from Meyer’s generosity line the walls of a building on the grounds of his home in Waco that houses a library, offices and meeting rooms.

Meyer is survived by his wife, Jane, five children and 15 grandchildren.