Ann Elizabeth Zindler

ZINDLER Ann Elizabeth Zindler, née Hunt, 77, of Columbus, succumbed to metastatic breast cancer at her Columbus home after a heroic battle of more than four years duration. The daughter of the late Charles Gordon Hunt of Michigan and Ruth Elizabeth Prather Hunt of Florida, she was born on February 25, 1935 in Ann Arbor, MI. She is survived by her brother, Lynn Gordon Hunt of Melbourne, FL; her husband of 48 years, Frank R. Zindler; daughter, Catherine E. Zindler; and grandchildren, Michael A. Zindler, Steven C. Zindler, and Laura E. Zindler, all of Columbus. She was a graduate of Roosevelt High School in Ypsilanti, MI, and studied art and biology at Eastern Michigan University. Before marriage in 1964 she managed a women's dormitory at the University of Michigan. Upon moving to Johnstown, NY in 1967 she became a stained glasswright and was well known on the East Coast for her acid-etched stained glass creations. Her hobbies included drawing, painting, miniaturing, sewing, cooking, snorkeling, breeding tropical fish and birds, and crafts of all kinds, most recently the creation of glass beads of fine artistry. Coming to Columbus in 1983 she served as joint director of the Central Ohio Chapter of American Atheists, the organization founded in 1963 by Madalyn Murray O'Hair. After the murder of the Murray-O'Hair family in 1995, Ann became the principal artist and art and layout editor for American Atheist Press, designing and producing books, magazines, newsletters, and Atheism-associated ephemera such as clever solstice cards. Beyond her family, Ann devoted her life to the advancement of reason and the dispelling of superstition. Even in childhood she could not force herself to believe in religion and was by nature a skeptic. For many years she served on the national Board of Directors of American Atheists, Inc. and labored with her husband to guard the wall of separation between state and church. She was a member of Planned Parenthood and NARAL, Zero Population Growth and, being an avid ornithologist, the Audubon Society. A private memorial of reminiscence will be held in Columbus later in January and a memorial celebration of life will be held at the 50th-anniversary convention of American Atheists to be held in Austin, TX, March 28-31, 2013. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the American Atheists legal-defense fund at www.atheists.org.