Ellery Schempp (born Ellory Schempp, August 5, 1940) is an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

and the primary student involved in the landmark 1963

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

decision of '' Abington School District v. Schempp'' which declared that required public school sanctioned Bible readings were unconstitutional.

Biography

Schempp was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

and grew up in the Roslyn community of Abington Township. He graduated from

Abington High School Abington High School is a public high school co-located with middle and pre-kindergarten schools in Abington, Massachusetts, United States. It is located at 201 Gliniewicz Way and has an enrollment of 520 students. The school's mascot is the ...

in 1958, and attended

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

where he earned

bachelor degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ye ...

s in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

and

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

. In 1967, Schempp received his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in physics from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. In 1977, Schempp was part of the Pittsburgh Explorer’s Group Nanga Parbat Expedition which was to be the first American group to reach the peak of Nanga Parbat in

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. Schempp, who is retired, currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts. Stephen D. Solomon, a professor at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, has written a book about Schempp and the Supreme Court case entitled ''Ellery’s Protest: How One Young Man Defied Tradition and Sparked the Battle over School Prayer''.

Activism

On November 26, 1956, Schempp staged a protest against the school requiring that each student read 10 Bible passages and the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

each day during homeroom. That day he brought a copy of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

and read from it; for this he was sent to the Principal's office. With the help of his father, Edward Schempp, and the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

, they sued the Abington School district over their policy of mandatory Bible readings. To maintain standing in the case, Schempp (and later his younger siblings Roger and Donna) continued to fight this policy in the courts over several years. The Schempps were Unitarian Universalists, a theologically liberal religious community. The case was eventually decided in Schempps's favor by the Supreme Court in 1963, five years after he had graduated from high school. The precedent that this decision established, that the public school does not have the right to sponsor religious exercises and then pressure students to take part in them has appeared time and time again in every church-state case focusing on religion in public schools. Schempp considers himself to be an atheist, but supports the Unitarian Universalist organizations and is a strong supporter of the

ACLU The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

and of the separation of church and state. He is a popular speaker at Unitarian Universalist and secular humanist meetings, where he speaks about his landmark protest as well as the current state of democracy, the

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

, and the Bill of Rights. As of 2011, he was still active in the Bedford Unitarian Universalist church near his home. Schempp is a member of the

American Humanist Association The American Humanist Association (AHA) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advances secular humanism. The American Humanist Association was founded in 1941 and currently provides legal assistance to defend the constitutiona ...

, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and

Americans United for the Separation of Church and State Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United or AU for short) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that advocates for the disassociation of religion and religious organizations from government. The separation of church ...

. In 1996, he received the Religious Liberty Award from Americans United. He is on the Advisory Board of the Secular Student Alliance and the

Secular Coalition for America The Secular Coalition for America is an advocacy group located in Washington D.C. It describes itself as "representing the interests of atheists, humanists, freethinkers, agnostics, and other nontheistic Americans." The Secular Coalition has chap ...

. He has traveled throughout the country talking about his experiences. In 2002, Schempp was elected to Abington Senior High School's hall of fame for his accomplishments in physics. In his acceptance speech, he said that "When I left Abington in 1958, it wasn’t clear that Abington ever wanted to see me again". The award did include the notation “Initiated school prayer suit against Abington which was eventually decided by U.S. Supreme Court in 1963.”

Physics

Schempp's doctoral thesis was entitled ''Nuclear Quadrupole

Resonance Resonance describes the phenomenon of increased amplitude that occurs when the frequency of an applied periodic force (or a Fourier component of it) is equal or close to a natural frequency of the system on which it acts. When an oscillatin ...

Nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...

Heterocycles''. This work was the precursor to the development of

magnetic resonance imaging Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio wave ...

(MRI) on which he continued to work for a substantial portion of his career.

References

External links

OYEZ.Org: Abington School District v. Schempp
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schempp, Ellory Schempp Ellory Schempp Ellory American atheists Schempp Ellory Schempp Ellory Schempp Ellory Political activists from Pennsylvania Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni People from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Scientists from Philadelphia Brown University alumni 20th-century American physicists