Abraham Kovoor - As A Rationalist

As A Rationalist

After retirement Kovoor devoted his life to the rationalist movement. He spent most of his time building up the Ceylon Rationalist Association, and was elected in 1960 as its president, a title he retained until his death. He edited an annual journal, The Ceylon Rationalist Ambassador. In 1961 he traveled in Europe and established contact with the World Union of Freethinkers. Under the pseudonym Narcissus, he wrote newspaper and magazine articles about his encounters with the paranormal. These articles were translated and published in India, initially in Malayalam by Joseph Edamaruku (Kovoor’s pseudonym ‘Narcissus’ was no longer used), and later in other Indian languages.

A controversy arose when Kovoor was awarded an honorary doctorate by the obscure (and now defunct) Minnesota Institute of Philosophy, calling itself the theological seminary of a "Church of Materialism." Kovoor had never visited the US. A strong critic of fake diplomas and doctorates used by charlatans, he later returned the honorary doctorate.

Abraham Thomas Kovoor died on September 18, 1978. "I am not afraid of death and life after death", he wrote in his will. "To set an example, I don't want a burial." He donated his eyes to an eye bank and his corpse to a medical college for anatomical study, with instructions that his skeleton eventually be given to the science laboratory of Thurstan College. All of these wishes were honored.