Noted atheist G. Lavanam dead

[rug]

Noted social reformer and atheist G. Lavanam, 86, breathed his last in Vijayawada on Friday morning and last rites performed on Saturday, announced family members



VIJAYAWADA, August 14, 2015

Social reformer and prominent atheist leader Goparaju Lavanam, 86, died of cardiac arrest at 9.50 a.m. here on Friday. The end came after a brief illness that saw him fighting a losing battle at Ramesh Hospitals, where he was shifted three weeks ago after he complained of uneasiness.

His body has been brought to the Atheist Centre near Benz Circle where people from various walks of life gathered in large numbers to pay their last tributes to the departed soul.

Born on October 10 in 1930, Lavanam was the eldest son of freedom fighters and social reformers Gora (Goparaju Ramachandra Rao) and Saraswathi Gora. He married Hemalata, daughter of renowned poet Gurram Joshua. He is brother of noted sexologist and former IMA president G. Samaram.

At a very young age of 12, he discontinued school to join his father Gora and participate in the freedom struggle and propagation of positive atheism. Lavanam’s radical thoughts on social change could be attributed to the vast exposure he had at a young age of meeting national and international leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Vinobha Bhave, Jayaprakash Narayan, King Martin Luther (Jr.), George Willoughby, Paul Kurtz (USA), Sir Herman Bondi (UK) and of course his father Gora.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Vijayawada/noted-atheist-g-lavanam-dead/article7539430.ece

http://atheistcentre.in/

[PassingFair]

1. Sorry to see this. I met him once.

He was a kind and gentle man.

[rexcat]

2. Not only a noted atheist...

but a prominent atheist leader. Seems he was more known as a social reformer per most of the articles noting his death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavanam

I am very familiar with Paul Kurtz, PhD, but he died in 2012. He was the founder of the Council on Secular Humanism. He was a prolific writer on the subject of secular humanism. He taught at SUNY Buffalo for many years.