In memoriam : Bill van Druten founded FFRF chapter

Psychiatrist Dr. Bill van Druten, who founded the Lake Superior Freethinkers, died Sept. 30.

He attended Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco and then went to Stanford University. He worked as a psychiatrist for USAF and Duluth Clinic (now Essentia). Van Druten was a psychiatrist at the Duluth Clinic when it merged with the Catholic-based St. Mary’s Medical Center. He retired rather than abide by the organization’s Catholic-based principles.

The Lake Superior Freethinkers (LSF), one of FFRF’s chapters and based in Duluth, Minn., was formed in 1997 by Bill, initially as a friendship group in support of morality without superstition, freedom from religion, state/church separation and rational thought.

On Dec. 27, 2000, van Druten and others from the Minnesota Secular Council met with Gov. Jesse Ventura. They presented the governor with a Political Courage award from Atheist Alliance International and a First Amendment Freedom Fighter award from their own secular council.

In 2001, van Druten went to the administrator of St. Luke’s Hospital to explain what a merger with Catholic Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother would mean. Both major Duluth hospitals (the other being St. Mary’s) for the city would then be under Vatican restrictions. Van Druten knew this affiliation would lead to imposition of the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care,” which place restrictions on the lawful rights of patients in matters concerning sterilization, fertilization, contraception, emergency contraception for victims of rape, pregnancy termination and end-of-life decisions.

This led van Druten to form a coalition with the Women’s Health Center. With the important presentation to the Gynecology Department by LSF Member Dr. Robert Goldish, the hospital board reversed the decision and the merger was blocked.

On June 25, 2002, van Druten wrote to the Duluth News Tribune pointing out that the Boy Scouts of America’s national resolution of Feb. 6 made clear that “duty to God . . . is an obligation” and praised “faith-based values.” But a growing number of Americans resented having their sons excluded from the ranks of the Boy Scouts because they are nonbelievers. In August that year, former Eagle Scouts, including van Druten, returned their medals and badges to the Boy Scouts, marked as Badges of Shame.

In a 2002 interview with Minnesota Public Radio, he said, “Most people in this area, as I think all over America, are surprised a little to find that people would openly say that they don’t believe in the God stories and all of the mythology. I point out to people that you don’t get your morality from Sunday school. You get it from the rough and tumble in the neighborhood, your family experiences, and just the experience of rubbing up against other people.”