Levi Fragell
Levi Fragell (born 30 March 1939) is a Norwegian humanist. He has been chairman and secretary of the Norwegian Humanist Association, and was President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) between 1987-1990 (as one member of a troika) and, in his own right, between 1998-2003.
His father was a Pentecostalist preacher, and in his teens Fragell also began working full-time as a preacher, before his studies in philosophy and comparative religion led him to leave the church. He took a university degree in the sociology of religion and then worked for a year as a school teacher in northern Norway, before becoming a journalist, and later working in marketing. He also became press secretary to several cabinet ministers in Norway.[1][2]
In 1976, he became leader of the Norwegian Humanist Association (Human-Etisk Forbund) at a time when it had 1500 members; its membership later grew to over 75,000 making it, as a proportion of national population, the largest such organisation in the world. He joined the board of the IHEU in the 1980s, becoming its co-president in 1987 and sole president between 1998 and 2003. In 2003 he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.[3] He later became Chair of the IHEU's Committee on Growth and Development, and has travelled widely to promote humanism, oppose racism and religious intolerance. In 2008 he was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the IHEU.[2]Periyar Maniammai University, Thanjavur of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, conferred the Doctor of Letters (Honoris causa) on Mr. Fragell, he delivered the 21st Convocation Address on 4 July 2014 of the University.[4][5]
References
- ↑ IHEU: Interview with Levi Fragell, 2009
- 1 2 IHEU: Lifetime Achievement Award to a Tireless Humanist, 18 April 2008
- ↑ "Notable Signers". Humanism and Its Aspirations. American Humanist Association. Retrieved September 28, 2012.
- ↑ "Levi Fragell honorary doctorate in India".
- ↑ "'India has taken humanism more seriously than West". The Hindu. Retrieved July 5, 2014.