Heavily involved in First Amendment rights issues, Garry and Mary De Young worked closely with famed atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair in supporting freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. They were the litigants in 84 lawsuits, focusing primarily on civil rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the separation of church and state and fourteen of which appealed to the United States Supreme Court.
Born in Preakness, New Jersey, Garry De Young, Jr. (1923-2002) served in the U.S. Air Force in England during World War II as a Master Sergeant with the B-17 Bombers in the 457th Bomb Group. During his service, he received six Bronze Stars and the Good Conduct Medal. In 1947, De Young married elementary school teacher Mary J. Wallitt, and the couple had nine children. Garry graduated from Delaware State University in 1955 and then enrolled at Temple University to pursue a Master of Education degree. Mary taught at a school in Baltimore until 1962, when she was fired after the school board learned the De Youngs were atheists. Afterwards, the De Youngs moved to Minnesota, where Garry served as the chief writer for the Minnesota Highway Department, until he was fired for playing secular music at a Christmas party.
Starting in 1963, Garry published The Crucible, The Naturalist, and other small freethinking and atheist magazines and booklets. In 1971 he founded the Minnesota Institute of Philosophy, and several years later the couple moved to Mercedes, Texas, where Mary wrote a newspaper column, The Scientific Atheist. Garry also ran several times for state and national offices in Minnesota and Iowa, including the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Senate races in Iowa. In 1991, the family moved to Stark, Kansas, where they owned and operated a farm and nursery and Garry conducted nursery research. In 1994, Garry founded the Atheist Law School. In addition, the couple wrote numerous books and pamphlets, including Abraham Lincoln, Apostle of Freedom, Garry’s A Blind Man Speaks Out, and Call to Reason, a collection of Mary’s newspaper articles.
From the guide to the De Young, Mary and Garry, papers 2001-219., [ca. 1960s-1990s], (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
