Like many others gathered to memorialize Paul Kurtz, he was to me a teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend. His impact on me was monumental, even life defining. I got to know him in 1997 after which followed a long period of long-distance (and for short periods, face-to-face) tutoring and mentoring in the history and philosophy of secular humanism. I went to work for him in early 2005. It was my good fortune to enjoy an especially close friendship with him during the last six years. So many accolades can be ascribed to this giant of a man (as we have heard today), but the two that stand out the most for me were his generosity and deep humanity. He was generous with his time and always ready and willing to lend a helping hand to a friend or colleague who had fallen on hard times. There were innumerable examples of this through the genuine expression of empathy, concern and caring. And he was always quick to support an important cause.

It has been said that death is the great equalizer, coming as it does to all of us, the mighty and the small, the most fortunate and the least fortunate among us. Yet it seems clear that when the full measure of a life is taken, certain lives are lived in such a way that they go on to attain a special kind of distinction, that even beyond death they continue to have a genuine impact, a felt presence in the world, like a pebble dropped into a pond or pool, rippling forever day after day. I think we can all agree that this is surely the case with Paul. A few days after his death, one perspicacious blogger noted that “in terms of others discovering the importance of his thought, his best days are ahead of him.”

I think his lasting legacy will be as a builder of institutions and as a purveyor of ideas. As a preeminent public intellectual, he had an intense interest in the power of ideas and how ideas come to influence the culture-at-large. Of course one single idea loomed large, animating his entire life: That idea being, that if human beings are to live as fully and authentically as possible, they had better first liberate themselves from the supernatural conceptions of the universe spun during the infancy of the human species and embark upon the task of living creatively and joyfully according to the wisdom of nature. This meant embracing humanism intellectually and emotionally. Yet for Paul this was not merely emancipatory, it was an ennobling ideal worth striving for, one capable of bringing increasing levels of meaning and value to our lives. Scientific inquiry, an ethical sensibility attuned to excellence, and a compassionate concern for others were for him pivotal to achieving this noble goal. For most of the second half of the 20th century he was without peer in articulating this single big idea in an extraordinarily compelling way. Paul was a philosopher in the grand (and comprehensive) manner. While some in his profession tended to be obscure, thinking it a sure sign of profundity, others – the logic choppers as they have been called – tended to dissect to death questions of interest only to professional philosophers. Paul did neither, for he was one of the great illuminators, bringing resource, intelligibility, and wisdom to the big questions that confront virtually all human beings. He made philosophy come alive! In this sense, he was essentially a moral philosopher.

Though Paul considered himself a citizen of the world and combined a cosmopolitan outlook with a planetary consciousness, there is a sense in which he was quintessentially American. He embodied so much of the American frontier spirit with its hearty and muscular pragmatism. Especially in later years he talked often about his deep fondness for Teddy Roosevelt. So many times in the last several months of his life he would turn to me and say with his face beaming: “You know what Roosevelt would say when he mounted his horse? CHARGE!!” It was altogether fitting that one of Paul’s first professional projects as a writer was to edit a masterly two-volume sourcebook of American thought from Puritanism to the founding fathers to the pragmatists, an endeavor he was especially proud of.

In later years Paul’s attention turned increasingly to what he would refer to in Humanist Manifesto 2000 and his book The Courage to Become as the human prospect. Indeed, the title of the last journal he founded in 2010 is called The Human Prospect. Much like The Dalai Lama he was concerned with the need to develop a secular ethic that can be accepted and shared across ideological, ethnic, and cultural dividing lines. He was concerned about the accelerated growth of technology and the ability of our ethical and moral systems to keep pace. And he was fiercely committed to advancing progressive and democratic values around the world and to protecting and preserving our fragile eco-system.

In all of these pressing matters he insisted that science and humanism were as relevant as ever. He was well aware that we face unprecedented challenges, yet at the same time unprecedented opportunities. He was heartened by the fact that recent polls have indicated a new openness on the part of increasing numbers of people to accept a more scientific and humanistic worldview. He continually cautioned against quietism and despair, reminding us that our destiny as a species is, at least partly, dependent on what we collectively resolve to do.

While some today seek to truncate (and ultimately impoverish) humanism to issues only peripheral to our larger concerns, Paul held steadfast with a wide, comprehensive vision of the humanist project, writing that: “We are interested in cognitive and ethical questions, in achieving, especially at the present juncture, a cultural renaissance or cultural reformation. We offer a distinctive set of intellectual and normative values. We emphasize the importance of reason and critical thinking, and we wish to use these methods in order to reformulate and refashion our values, and to raise the quality of taste and the level of appreciation in society. Humanism is life-affirming; it is positive and constructive. If applied, it would enable us to reform human culture by transcending the ancient religious, racial, ethnic, and ideological dogmas of the past that so adversely affect human civilization in the present. We thus call for a reaffirmation of the highest values of which humans are capable.”

It is because of Paul that I fell in love with the world of ideas and especially philosophy. He helped me grow as a human being, both personally and professionally. I am grateful that he gave me the opportunity to play a role in the professional humanist movement. It was an enormous honor to work for him and have him as a colleague. With his formidable drive, energy, and intelligence, he set a very high standard for us all to attempt to approximate. And so I close borrowing some words that he himself chose to use in 1989 when honoring his own departed teacher, colleague and friend, the late Sidney Hook: Adieu, Paul. You will be sorely missed. We hope we will fulfill your great expectations of us.

Delivered at the University of Buffalo, Amherst, New York on December 1, 2012