Catherine Fahringer
From Philosopedia
Fahringer, Catherine (18 September 1922 - 13 December 2008 )
Fahringer (née Compton) was born in Utah to a military family. After living in various places in the United States and abroad, her family settled in San Antonio, Texas, when Catherine was 12.
Raised as an Episcopalian, she was urged by family members to introduce her children to religion. While living in England, where her husband was stationed, Catherine dutifully purchased The Golden Book of Bible Stories. Perusing it before she read the stories to her children, Catherine had an epiphany: "I said to my husband, 'I can't teach this stuff to my kids. I'm nicer than God" .
She found a venue for activism when she hooked up with the Freedom From Religion Foundation in 1987. She created and hosted "Freethought Forum," a regular cable TV show that is still airing in San Antonio under other producership.
Fahringer became a well-known public figure in San Antonio, monitoring and challenging numerous, egregious state/church violations there. An officer with the national Foundation, she served on its governing council. With wit and aplomb, she protested city prayer breakfasts, the presence of religious symbols on public property, and kept freethought in focus with numerous op-eds, letters to the editor, and educational letters to government officials and media. In the 1990s, she even managed to persuade then-Gov. Ann Richards and city officials to make proclamations commemorating freethought. Her media appearances include being featured on TV's Sally Jessy Raphael Show, where she quipped about rejecting the idea of a "Big Spook in the Sky."
In an interview with San Antonio Express News, "Portrait of an Atheist by Craig Phelon," she said,
- We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake.
When people assumed she was like Madalyn Murray O’Hair, she responded, “There are other atheists out there. They are beautiful people. Madalyn’s not, unfortunately.”
On 26 March 2006, her husband Frederick H. Fahringer (1920 - 2006) died. During a 35-year career, he completed tours of duty with the Air Force in Japan, France, and England, retiring in 1971 as a Command Pilot at Kelly Air Force Base. The two had been married for 62 years.
Fahringer died of pancreatic cancer. She had previously made arrangements for her body to be donated for scientific research.
A memorial service was held on 24 January 2009 at Community Unitarian Universalist Church, 4818 Beverly Mae East, San Antonio, Texas.
{FFRF; San Antonio Express News, March 24, 1991; WWS}
