Time’s wingèd chariot
Well this is horrible news.
James Underdown of CFI (the Center for Inquiry):
Tom Flynn, Giant of American Freethought, Has Died at Age 66
The world has lost a towering figure of American freethought, a man who was both on the cutting edge of secular humanist thought, as well as the foremost caretaker of its rich history. The entire Center for Inquiry family is anguished by the sudden and unexpected death of our colleague, teacher, and friend Tom Flynn at age 66.
Tom held numerous leadership roles during his more than thirty years with the Center for Inquiry, most recently as editor of Free Inquiry magazine, director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace Museum and the Freethought Trail, and former executive director of the Council for Secular Humanism.
But this collection of titles does not nearly convey the plainer truth, which is that Tom Flynn was the beating heart of the Center for Inquiry and indeed the wider freethought movement.
Dammit. I liked Tom a lot.
Years ago I sat next to Tom Flynn at a luncheon, told him I enjoyed his work, and then said I didn’t, however, agree with his last column. I don’t remember now what the topic was, or what I had a problem with, but I do remember how he instantly straightened up. “Why?” he grinned. And we had a lovely, exciting discussion right there, between bites.
Damn.
I bet you did. That sounds exactly like him.
The thing is (for me the thing is)…I had this moment once, YEARS before I ever got anywhere near Tom Flynn & co, of having this pang of longing to be part of Free Inquiry in some way. It was soon after Carl Sagan died (so that makes it I think 1996) and I was browsing magazines at a library and found a Free Inquiry and read Richard Dawkins’s tribute to Sagan. And I just…wanted to be part of it. Knowing it was a ludicrous thing to want.
I saw him speak once. His topic was on the reasons that atheists should ignore Christmas. I didn’t really agree with him but it was highly entertaining. I did get the chance to talk to him, briefly, at the dinner following. I liked him. At 66 he was young, and I’m sorry to see him go.
I met him a few times. Like others have said, I often disagreed with him but always enjoyed talking to him. Horrible news indeed.
I got a couple of chances to meet Tom Flynn and speak with him; I found him pleasant and erudite. I enjoyed reading his columns in Freethought Today. And he knew how to use punctuation. The world has lost a real giant.
I’ve never heard of him before, but the anecdotes here in the comments give me the impression that he really was a proponent of free thought (note the intentional space there) — inviting disagreement and enjoying discussion, especially open-ended discussion which doesn’t necessarily convince anyone else to one’s own point of view in a single sweeping conversation, and remaining convivial and ready to extend advice and friendship even to people who exercise their freedom to keep disagreeing.
Of course, drawing these conclusions on such anecdotes would probably raise objections on rigorous empirical grounds, but I’ll take that liberty here. ;)
I never met him and it seems I missed out.