Founders
Seattle atheists was co-founded by Wendy Britton, Pat Inniss, and Jerry Schiffelbein. Wendy is a second-generation atheist who was raised in Berkeley, California. Wendy’s parents always allowed her to find her own way and allowed her to attend church with her friends to figure it out for herself. She never said the words “under God” during the pledge and always lifted her hand from her heart during that part, which led to more invitations to church. After living in six states by age sixteen, she gave up church-going, as she felt she had collected enough data to explore other options.
After college, Wendy got a job in Texas, where it was tough to be an outspoken atheist. In 1992, she found an ad in the Austin Chronicle for an American Atheists convention and became a member of the organization. After the O’Hairs disappeared from Austin, she lapsed for a couple of years, waiting to find out if it was safe to be an atheist in public anymore. Later, she joined an affiliated AA group called the Atheist Community of Austin (ACA).
After September 11th, Wendy relocated to be near her family in Seattle, Washington. Finding no atheist groups with the word atheist in the title, she formed a Seattle Atheist Yahoo group, inviting folks from other groups, including humanists, skeptics, agnostics, and freethinkers, to events at her home.
The group combined the simultaneous efforts of Pat and Jerry, who had created SANE (the Seattle Atheist Network Experience), and drew on a large pool of atheists that were already attending meetup events. In 2003, the group was founded as a Washington State non-profit organization, and received Federal 501(c)(3) status.
