Edwin Kagin, Atheist Who Battled Religion in Public Sphere, Dies at 73
Edited to add link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/09/us/politics/edwin-kagin-atheist-who-battled-religion-in-public-sphere-dies-at-73.html?_r=0
The New York Times
April 8. 2014
Edwin Kagin, Atheist Who Battled Religion in Public Sphere, Dies at 73
By PAUL VITELLO
Edwin F. Kagin, the son of one minister and father of another, who saw religiosity creeping into the public domain and fought against it in a dual role as head lawyer and jester-provocateur for one of the country’s most militant atheist organizations, died on March 28 at his home in Union, Ky. He was 73...
Mr. Kagin was the national legal director of American Atheists, an organization founded in 1963 by Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who was instrumental in the Supreme Court decision that year banning school prayer. He was associated with the group for 40 years...
...In 1995, Mr. Kagin and his wife, Helen, founded a summer camp, Camp Quest, in Ohio, that has since become the model for a dozen others operating in the United States, Britain and Norway for the children of atheists, agnostics and others opposed to the religious overtones of many camp programs.
Mr. Kagin’s carefully chosen legal battles were almost always decided in the highest state and federal courts, several times landing at the doorstep of the United States Supreme Court. And win or lose, he was often praised by opposing lawyers for the precision and constitutional insight manifest in his briefs. MORE
