Bobbie Kirkhart died on October 31, 2021, in her home in Los Angeles, CA. She was 78 years old and is survived by her daughter Monica Waggoner, son-in-law Matthew Waggoner, grandsons Donovan and Raphael Waggoner, sister Marjorie Hohnbaum, and a plethora of nieces, nephews, and chosen family she had collected over her life. 

Bobbie was born April 16, 1943 in Enid, Oklahoma. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma in 1965 before moving to Los Angeles, CA that same year.

Bobbie's first job was as a social worker for the Department of Children and Family Services. In this job, she participated in one of the first public employee strikes in the country, where their demands included, among loftier things like lower caseloads and better pay, the simple request that female social workers be allowed to wear trousers to work rather than skirts. She completed some graduate-level coursework in linguistics before divorce sent her back into the workforce. She taught in private business colleges for a few years before becoming a teacher with Los Angeles Unified School District’s Adult Division, teaching Individualized Instruction Labs, where adults (and some high school students) studied the entire gamut of high school requirements at their own pace, earning their diplomas. There, she taught math, science, geography, and history, to students from every background and corner of the world. She retired from LAUSD when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1999. After she recovered, she poured her energy into the freethought movement with renewed vigor. 

For nearly four decades Bobbie was a fixture in atheist movement building. She served as President of both Atheist Alliance International and Atheists United, served on the board of Camp Quest and the advisory board for Humanist Association of Nepal, helped form the Secular Coalition for America, and was an informal advisor and mentor to dozens of freethought leaders. Bobbie had spoken to freethought groups throughout the United States, and had addressed atheists and humanists in Canada, Germany, France, India, Ireland, Nigeria and Cameroon. She also was a platform speaker at the first of its kind Godless Americans March in Washington, DC in 2002 and accepted the Freethought Backbone Award from the Secular Student Alliance in 2013. 

In 2009, she purchased and opened up her century-old Victorian home (known as Heretic House) to speakers and local groups, giving atheists and progressive organizers a dependable and rent-free meeting space. Hundreds of fundraisers, parties, choir rehearsals, jam-sessions, board retreats, recovery meetings, and volunteer events have called Heretic House home over the last decade while dozens of well-known speakers and activists have crashed for a few nights at a time. Even through the pandemic, Heretic House has continued to host multiple events a month and plans to remain active after Bobbie's death. Bobbie was first married in 1969 to William Mason, and then divorced in 1982. She remarried in 1997 to Harvey Tippit, whom she met through Atheists United. She and Harvey traveled often and enjoyed many exotic destinations like Borneo and the Galapagos. She became a widow in 2006. Bobbie continued to travel and took her daughter, son-in-law, and grandsons on an adventure to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia Island, and the Antarctic Peninsula in 2019 which would be her last major trip. 

She will be remembered by her family as a loving and supportive mother and grandmother and to her community as one of the most generous, involved, and forward-thinking organizers of her time.Community Celebration of Life RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/…

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