— One Humanist's Stance Today — Virtual Meeting
Speaker: Ariel Thomann
Main Talk: One Humanist's Stance Today
Ariel will speak about church and state separation issues.
Musician: Cory Wilson
Speaker Bio:
I was born and raised in Argentina - I grew up under the Perón regime. In 1954, at eighteen and starting my university studies, my mother urged me to leave the country and get away from that particular populist demagogue dictator. Things were that bad.
My pre-med studies were at UT, in Austin. From there I went to medical school at Baylor, in Houston. During that time I met and married Abby, still my wife after 60 years. I interned in Phoenix. That was during the Vietnam buildup. I speak Spanish, so the Army sent me to the Panamá Canal Zone, and I admit I did not complain.
In 1968 I began my 2-year pediatric training in Puerto Rico, my wife’s birthplace. Our son was born there.
We returned to Houston at the end of 1969. In 1970 I opened my first pediatric office in the Clear Lake area. I practiced there for almost 10 years. The pediatric clinic I began from scratch is still a going concern after half a century.
In late 1979 I jumped back into a uniform, as an Air Force Flight Surgeon. I served long tours in Torrejón Air Base near Madrid, Spain, and at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls.
Abby and I were Humanists of Houston co-founders in 1976(?). I resumed secular activism primarily with them and with Americans United after our return to Houston in 1986.
Back in Houston. I worked for 4 years at the NASA Johnson Space Center as an aerospace and occupational medicine specialist - probably my most fondly remembered job. At the same time I still wore a uniform part-time, as Clinic Commander and Flight Surgeon at Ellington Air National Guard Base.
Militarily, I switched to the Air Force Reserve at Wilford Hall Medical Center, in San Antonio, until my military retirement in early 1996. In my parallel civilian career, I was Medical Director for several energy-related companies until I totally retired for reasons of family health in 2014.
In 2017 (just before Hurricane Harvey!) we moved to the Army Retirement Community (northeast San Antonio) for various reasons including proximity to our son, in Bastrop. We now live in a place that takes good care of us in the age of Covid — but where we are surrounded by mostly conservative neighbors.
Musician Bio: TBA
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