Ellery Schempp
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Ellery Schempp (August 1940 – ), born Ellory Schempp, is an accomplished physicist who is also famous for being the primary student involved in the landmark 1963 United States Supreme Court case of Abington School District v. Schempp which declared that Bible readings in public schools were unconstitutional.
Ellery was born in Philadelphia, but grew up in the Roslyn community of Abington Township. He graduated from Abington High School in 1958, and attended Tufts University where he earned bachelor degrees in physics and geology. In 1967, Ellery received his Ph.D. in physics from Brown University.
In 1980 Ellery officially changed his name from "Ellory" to "Ellery" citing constant confusions with the name "Elroy" and the historical precedence of the spelling "Ellery".
Ellery Schempp currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts.
Activism
On November 26, 1956 Ellery staged a protest against the school requirement that each student read 10 Bible passages and the Lord's Prayer each day during homeroom. Instead, Ellery brought a copy of the Qur'an and read from that. For this, he was sent to the Principal's office. With the help of his father Edward Schempp and the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the Abington School district over their policy of mandatory Bible readings.
Over several years, Ellery, his father, and later his younger siblings Roger and Donna continued to fight this policy in the courts. The Schempps were Unitarian Universalists, who do not necessarily believe in the divinity of Jesus or agree with the Bible. The case was eventually settled in Ellery's favor by the Supreme Court in 1963, five years after he had graduated from high school.
Ellery continues to be a dedicated Unitarian Universalist and a strong supporter of the ACLU 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 constititution, and the bill of rights.
Ellery is a member of the American Humanist Association and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. In 1996, he received the Religious Liberty Award from Americans United.
Physics
Dr. Schempp's doctoral thesis was entitled Nuclear Quadrupole Resonance in Nitrogen Heterocycles. This work was the precursor to the development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) which he continued to work on for a substantial portion of his career.
Since receiving his doctorate, Dr. Schempp has held the following positions:
- 1967 – 1968: Brown University, Post-Doctoral Fellow
- 1969 – 1970: Bell Telephone Laboratories, Technical Staff
- 1970 – 1976: University of Pittsburgh, Professor of Crystallography and Research Assistant Professor in Physics
- 1977 – 1979: Université de Genève, Invited Professor
- 1980 – 1983: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Worked on projects related to nuclear waste disposal.
- 1984 – 1990: GE Medical Systems. Worked on development of MRI.
- 1990 – 1996: American Superconductor Corporation, Manager of Business Development
- 1996 – ????: Industrial Research Laboratory of New Zealand, Consultant
- ???? – Present: Harvard Consulting Group, Senior Partner
In 1977, Dr. 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.
In 2002, Dr. Schempp was elected to Abington Senior High School's hall of fame for his accomplishments in physics. His involvement in the court case was not mentioned in his acceptance speech except that he opened with the line, "I never thought they'd invite me back here."
As of 2004, Dr. Schempp is credited with 33 publications in peer reviewed journals of science.
External links
- Abington School District (http://www.abington.k12.pa.us/)
- "The Democratic Way", A Sermon by Ellery Schempp (http://www.uubedford.org/sermons/Schempp-TheDemocraticWay.htm) source for much of this Biographic information