 He was educated at the Warren, Rhode Island high school, and then at Brown University, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1935.He graduated from the Virginia Theological Seminary with a Bachelor of Divinity in 1938.Temple was ordained deacon on May 29, 1938 by Bishop James De Wolf Perry of Rhode Island, and priest in June 1, 1939 by Bishop Edwin A. Penick of North Carolina.