James Hornback

From Philosopedia

Hornback, James F(ranklin) (1919— )

The son of a Methodist minister, Hornback graduated from Central Methodist College in Fayette, Missouri, and pursued post-graduate studies in philosophy at the University of Chicago and Columbia University. He graduated in 1994 from the American Ethical Union's then-experimental training program for Leaders and served as Leader of the Westchester Society starting in 1947.

He was selected to lead the St. Louis Society in 1951. In 1983, Hornback submitted his dissertation, The Philosophic Sources and Sanctions of the Founders of the Ethical Society, to Columbia.

Hornback from 1947 to 1951 led the Westchester Ethical Culture Society, then from 1951 to 1984 led the Ethical Society of St. Louis, which is the fourth oldest (1886) and the second largest of the nation’s Ethical societies. He retired as its director in November 1984.

A charter member of the American Humanist Association (1941), and a signer of Humanist Manifesto II, Hornback was President of the American Ethical Union from 1982 to 1983 and a board member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) from 1962 to 1966.

He attended IHEU Congresses in Amsterdam, London, Oslo, Paris, Boston, Hannover, and Buffalo.

Hornback is the great-grandson of “Old Jim Hornback,” Mark Twain’s model of a benevolent country gentleman in Huckleberry Finn (Chapter 13).

{CL; EU, Howard B. Radest; HM2; HNS; HNS2}