Harry Stopes-Roe

Harry Verdon Stopes-Roe(27 March 1924 – 11 May 2014) was a Britishphilosopherknown mainly for his active role in thehumanistmovement in Britain and around the world. He was a Vice-President of theBritish Humanist Associationuntil his death in May 2014, having served as its Chair previously.

Biography

Born in London,he was the son of the aircraft manufacturer and philanthropistHumphrey Verdon Roeand thewomen's rightsandfamily planningpioneerMarie Stopes.He started his career as aphysicist,and received aBScandMScin physics fromImperial College,London.Thanks to studying physics he was exempt from military call-up during the Second World War. He then went toCambridge University,and took aPhDin philosophy.

After he married ashort-sightedwoman, his mother, an advocate ofeugenics,cut him out of her will. His wife—Mary Eyre Wallis, later Mary Stopes-Roe—was the daughter of the noted engineerBarnes Wallis.Stopes reasoned that prospective grandchildren might inherit the condition.

Stopes-Roe became a lecturer inScience StudiesatBirmingham University,bringing together physics with philosophy.His work led him to seek a non-religious basis for morality inhumanism,and he became Chair of the British Humanist Association as well as having an active role in theInternational Humanist and Ethical Union(IHEU).

In the 1970s, he was largely responsible for developing the BHA's policy on education, covering both religious and non-religiouslife stances.Stopes-Roe invented and popularised the term "life stance", initially in the context of debates over the controversial content of the City ofBirmingham'sAgreed Syllabus for Religious Educationin 1975, which referred to "non-religious stances for living", as did the subsequentBritish Humanist Association(BHA) booklet "Objective, Fair and Balanced" which he andDavid Pollockproduced later in the same year. In the late 1980s, he initiated a successful campaign for the adoption of the term by the IHEU and other organisations.

He represented the BHA on the Religious Education Council and he led the Values Education Council for many years. He was also president ofBirmingham Humanistsprior to his death. In 1986, along withBarbara Smoker,he became one of the last two Appointed Lecturers at theSouth Place Ethical Society,a position he retained until his death, though the Conway Hall Sunday Lectures have not been given by Appointed Lecturers for many years.

He died on 11 May 2014, at the age of 90.