FFRF has recognized student activists for many years, with scholarships funded by generous FFRF members. From 1997–2007, for example, Richard Mole generously endowed an annual student activist award, in memory of Ruth (“Dixie”) Jokinen. Since 2009, a student activist award has been funded through a bequest by Catherine Fahringer and replenished by friends. Donors have included the late Alan Snyder, and an Oregon couple, who are now endowing the Thomas Jefferson Youth Activist Award of $2,000, among several other individuals creating student activist awards. In 2014, FFRF created the Cliff Richards Memorial Student Activist Endowment, after he stipulated the use in his bequest. Other awards funded by members, typically of $1,000 each, include the “Strong Backbone” award, the Robert G. Ingersoll scholarship, the Percy Bysshe Shelley scholarship, the Al Luneman Student Activist scholarship, and two $5,000 awards for really major activism: The Beverly and Richard Hermsen Student Activist scholarship and the “Out of God’s Closet” Diane and Stephen Uhl Memorial scholarship. We thank our donors for helping FFRF reward the next generation of freethinkers!
Catherine Fahringer, Cliff Richards
