Melvin S. Lipman, aka Mel Lipman (1936-2019

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

) was an attorney, civil libertarian and humanist (nontheist/atheist) activist. He was a retired bank

auditor An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting an ...

, arbitrator,

mediator Mediation is a structured, voluntary process for resolving disputes, facilitated by a neutral third party known as the mediator. It is a structured, interactive process where an independent third party, the mediator, assists disputing parties ...

and college instructor, having taught

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and US History at several

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

colleges. He frequently lectured on Church/State separation issues and his participation in interfaith forums provided him with the opportunity to clarify the Humanist perspective. In a

Las Vegas Review-Journal The ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'' is a daily subscription newspaper published in Las Vegas, Nevada, since 1909. It is the largest circulating daily newspaper in Nevada and one of two daily newspapers in the Las Vegas area. The ''Review-Journal' ...

article, Lipman stated: "My biggest concern is to counter the propaganda from people who think that people who don't believe in a supernatural deity cannot live moral, ethical lives." Lipman said his top priority "is to change people's attitudes about Humanists". "It is not OK", said Lipman, in the Review-Journal article, "to discriminate against somebody simply because they do not believe in God". Lipman was the immediate past president of the

American Humanist Association The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a 501(c) organization, non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism. The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defe ...

and remained active in many of its activities. He was a trustee and treasurer of The Humanist Foundation (the American Humanist Association's endowment fund) and was a co-mentor of the 2012 class of the Humanist Institute. He was a former vice-president of the

International Humanist and Ethical Union Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Fou ...

and was one of the founders, a past president, and a board member of the Humanist Association of Las Vegas and Southern Nevada. He was a life member of

Freedom From Religion Foundation The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is an American nonprofit organization that advocates for atheism, atheists, agnosticism, agnostics, and nontheism, nontheists. Formed in 1976, FFRF promotes the separation of church and state, and ch ...

and the

. Lipman was a past president and former member of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Las Vegas and he was a "fellow" at the Unitarian Universalist Humanist Symposium. Though raised in the

Jewish faith Judaism () is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which the ...

, he became a humanist minister, licensed in Nevada to officiate at marriage ceremonies and he was a board member of the Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada. He was a former board member of the Nevada Civil Liberties Union and served as an advisory board member of Scouting for All. Mr. Lipman lived in Las Vegas,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, was married to Anita Lipman, and had two children and three grandchildren. His daughter, Lori Lipman Brown is a former member of the Nevada State Senate, former director of the

Secular Coalition for America The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "protecting the equal rights of nonreligious Americans." The Secular Coalition has chapters in all 50 states and Puerto Rico, composed of lo ...

, and was co-mentor (with Mel Lipman) of the Humanist Institute class of 2012.

References and external links

Biography at the American Humanist Association
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipman, Mel American humanists 2019 deaths 1936 births American atheism activists