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As Josh Rosenau wrote on Twitter:

Paul Kurtz, skeptic and humanist extraordinaire, has died. Founded CFI, CSH, CSI, Prometheus Books, etc. Changed the world. Was 86.

Wikipedia features:

Paul Kurtz was a prominent American skeptic and secular humanist. He has been called “the father of secular humanism”. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Buffalo, having previously also taught at Vassar, Trinity, and Union colleges, and the New School for Social Research.

Kurtz published over 800 articles or reviews and authored and edited over 50 books. Many of his books have been translated into over 60 languages. They include The Transcendental Temptation, Forbidden Fruit: The Ethics of Secularism, The Courage to Become, and Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda. His published bibliography of writings from 1952 to 2003 runs over 79 pages.



Kurtz founded the publishing house Prometheus Books in 1969. He was also the founder and past chairman of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (formerly the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism, and the Center for Inquiry.