My name is George Ricker. I’m an author, an activist and an atheist. I have worked as a full-time journalist and have done a bit of free-lance writing. At different times in my life, I have worked as an English teacher, an associate pastor, a purchasing agent and a warehouse manager. I have been a bookkeeper, a paperboy, a yard man and a truck driver. I read books, shoot pool, cook, play chess, listen to jazz, drink gin, watch movies and sometimes just sit by myself and think about things. I enjoy my family, my friends and most of the people I meet along the way. I’m also a husband, father, grandfather, friend, brother, son, cousin, nephew and uncle. The point is, like most of you, I wear lots of hats and there are all sorts of labels I could attach to myself that would be valid and appropriate. On the other hand, there is no one label that defines me completely. I hope you will keep that in mind as you peruse these pages.
More than 50 years ago, a high school English teacher asked me a question. I was in the 11th grade at the time, and the question was contained in a comment on an essay that I had written for his class. The teacher, whose name was Jerry Salek, said, “You are becoming a good writer. So what will you do with it?” I suppose, in a way, I have spent the bulk of my life trying to answer that question.
Over the years I have written thousands of pages containing hundreds of thousands of words. I have written essays, poetry, short stories, novels, non-fiction, even a one-act play. I have written newspaper articles, columns and editorials. Whatever I have had to do to earn a living, I have always thought of myself as a writer. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, I have never had much success getting my work published. This is mostly my own fault but not for the reason you might suspect. I simply never have had the patience to deal with all the nonsense most book and magazine publishers insist on putting authors through. So after writing “Godless in America: conversations with an atheist,” I decided to go the print-on-demand route. For the most part, I have enjoyed the experience. That’s why I used the same approach after deciding to publish a selection of material from my “Godless in America” website. That book is titled “mere atheism: no gods…no problem!”
I am a retired journalist, but I have worked at a variety of occupations in my life. I am happily married with a son, three daughters and three grandsons. I have lived in Florida for almost all my life. Currently, my wife and I live in Palm Bay, which is in Brevard County south of the Kennedy Space Center. I can look out my front window and watch rockets launch into space from Cape Canaveral.