Wayne Wilson

I have been a humanist for a long time, longer than I have known that a formal humanist movement existed. It started in my late teens and early 20's. I discovered that some of what my parents and teachers had taught me about life was not exactly true and so I began to question everything. First and foremost on the list of dubious "knowledge" was religion. The claims seemed fantastical and the evidence was obviously lacking. Sometime during my early mid-twenties I realized that it was highly doubtful that an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent being (aka: God) exists. This left me with a moniker of "atheist." An African-American friend convincingly explained that he hated being called a "non-white" and so it was easy for me to be uncomfortable with "atheist."

Sometime a few years later I read about a philosophy called humanism, it described exactly what I believed. I started calling myself a humanist. The long version of this story is available on our website under August 1994.

Then on January 18, 1992, the Salt Lake Tribune published an article in the Religion section describing a local humanist chapter (see our website under February 1992.) Three names were listed, Ed Wilson, Bob Green, and Florien Wineriter. Flo's distinctive name seemed the most likely candidate to find in the phone book so I gave him a call and got the date and time for the next meeting. I took my checkbook with me and signed up, I did not need a three-month trial subscription to convince me that I belonged here. My only regret was that it had taken me over a year since the formation of the chapter to find out that it exists. I will always be jealous of those of our group who can claim charter membership status.

It did not take me very long to get involved. My first submission to The Utah Humanist was published two months later. When Anne Zielstra, the original president and one of the co-founders, announced that he was leaving due to his wife's career development I volunteered to join the Board as Secretary. After a couple of years Bob needed to step down as editor and publisher of The Utah Humanist. I was glad to take over and I am proud of what I was able to do with it for nearly six years.

In early 2000 I became aware of an opportunity at work to distinguish myself in an ancillary group. My job is support of the computer software used by Intermountain Health Care Laboratory Services. The software is a product of Misys Hospital Systems based in Tucson, AZ. There are about 1200 hospitals and laboratories worldwide that use this product. As you may imagine this product is extremely complex and it's management is quite a job. The company facilitated organization of a Users Group many years ago because they realized that often users helping other users was a viable way to provide part of the product support they were obligated to. I became involved in the Users' Group sometime around 1996. I was elected chair of the Western Regional Users' Group in 1998. In 2000 I decided to make a run at the President position for the worldwide user group. This decision necessitated that I back off a little on some of my other obligations. Indeed this is when I resigned my position as Editor/Publisher of the Utah Humanist. In July 2001 I was elected President of the Users' Group. This year in Tucson at the end of July I assumed that position which I will hold until next July. The convention was a busy week for me, I had two 45-minute technical presentations, a Special Interest Group to lead, a speech at the closing session, and two parts in skits.

Humanism is still my favorite avocation and I look forward to being able to spend more time spreading the word beginning next year. Until then I am still active in the chapter, still serve on the Board as Secretary, and have temporarily taken over webmaster duties until someone with more skill can be found to take over.

--Wayne Wilson