Leroy was born in Wilmington, Illinois, in the heartland of
America, soon after Baha'u'llah's Message first reached the West in 1893. His
father, Charles loas, was of Lutheran background and had come from Munich to
the United States in 1880. He accepted the Faith in 1898 and served it
faithfully until his death in 1917, as a member and secretary of the House of
Spirituality in Chicago, the first Local Spiritual Assembly. To him
'Abdu'l-Baha made a remarkable promise: “… thou wilt behold thyself in a lofty station,
having all that is in earth under its shadow…" He was "that wonderful
man loas", whose seed, like Abraham's, scattered around the globe in
succeeding generations, to carry the news of the New Day.
Leroy's mother, Maria, born a German Catholic, accepted
Baha'u'llah with her husband. For her son, she was "one of the angels of
the American Baha'i community", and lived to hear of his elevation to the
rank of Hand of the Cause and to participate in the dedication of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in Wilmette in 1953, to the erection of which both husband
and children had greatly contributed.
Leroy, as many have heard, was the Guardian's Hercules. His
"vigorous spirit of determination… and of noble enthusiasm," his "energy,
judgment, zeal and fidelity," his "incessant activities and
prodigious labours", his "tireless vigilance, self-sacrifice, and
devotion to the Cause in all its multiple fields of activity"- these are
the Guardian's words - were greatly prized by Shoghi Effendi as "assets for
which I am deeply and truly thankful." "I admire the spirit that
animates you [and] marvel at your stupendous efforts," he wrote to this
"dearest and most valued co-worker".
Leroy was a practical man, of outstanding attainment in
business, shrewd, determined, bard-working, content only with success - all
qualities essential to the achievement of the goals to which his life was
dedicated. Yet such qualities are not unique. Leroy's rare gift was his spirit,
which propelled him tirelessly - a spirit of impeccable loyalty and obedience
to the greatest or least wish and guidance of the Covenant, as embodied in
'Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi. He was discerning, undeviating, trustful in
his orientation to the Covenant, and this was the true source of his
"enduring and remarkable" services. "The path is thorny and the
problems many," he wrote in 1957, "but the spiritual confirmations
are great, and the blessings of the Holy Spirit unending. I dare say, no one
would trade his opportunity of service, and spiritual victory, for anything in
the world."
Leroy himself described his life as moving through four episodes: his acceptance as a child and youth of spiritual truth and his meeting with 'Abdu'l-Baha; his years in San Francisco (1919-46); his return to Chicago (1946-52); and his transfer to Haifa, the World Centre of the Faith (1952-65). These episodes provide a frame in which to examine his achievements.
I
From boyhood Leroy was sensitive to the light of the Spirit.
When, in 1912, 'Abdu'l-Baha came to Chicago, Leroy led his parents to Him in a
crowded hotel lobby by the radiance which enveloped Him. Although only sixteen,
he took the Master for his guide, and was aware of His guidance at several
critical periods of his life. He was present when 'Abdu'l-Baha laid the
cornerstone of the Temple in Wilmette - his father had helped to draft the
petition to the Master for permission to build it - and as a young man he
taught classes on its grounds. Also at sixteen, after high school and some
commercial training, he began work in the railway industry which he continued,
chiefly with Southern Pacific Lines, for forty years, rising from an
insignificant post to become Passenger Traffic Manager in the Eastern United
States. In 1919 he was married to Sylvia Kuhlman, and together they set out for
San Francisco.
II
In his own estimation, his years in the West were the “most
productive". (He evaluated them before transferring to Haifa.) As his
business career grew in rank and responsibility, so did the scope of his Baha'i
activities. For Leroy had a creative vision matched by practical sense and
determination, and his hopes for the expansion of the Faith were boundless. And
be arrived in California at the threshold of the Formative Age, in which, led
by the newly-appointed Guardian, the American Baha'is would pioneer the
establishment of the Administrative Order.
Almost his first act on reaching San Francisco was to
address a letter to 'Abdu'l-Baha, begging confirmation for all his family and
his children unborn, and for his own severance, knowledge, and steadfastness
"that this faltering one may be quickened through that Divine Power, and
thereby render some service which may be conducive to the happiness of the
heart of 'Abdu'l-Baha." He had heard the Master's Divine Plan Tablets read
at the American Convention in New York that spring, and his desire to serve had
been fully awakened.
Led by such pioneers as Mrs. Goodall and her daughter Ella
G. Cooper, the Faith had been established in San Francisco and the Bay area for
a quarter of a century, and opportunities of teaching were rapidly developing.
Sylvia and Leroy opened their home to study classes, and before long Leroy was
conducting, almost unaided, classes of a hundred in San Francisco and Oakland.
They had also moved to the Baha'i Centre, which they kept open for all
occasions, and to these responsibilities were added Leroy's chairmanship of the
San Francisco Spiritual Assembly, an office be held for twenty years, and
membership of the Western States Teaching Committee.
At this time so few believers in the West were available to
teach and conduct study classes that, as Leroy wrote, "the situation
became extremely discouraging" and the burdens he carried affected his
health. He determined to change the situation, to train teachers, "that we
should not again find ourselves in such a deplorable situation. By nature I
have always faced a situation and then tried to figure out the steps necessary
for solving the problem... Thus, during this period of intensive teaching and
great stress my mind began to work on steps towards a solution... Out of this
period three different plans of teaching came to me. One was to establish in
this liberal western area very large unity conferences... Another... was... the
revised teaching plan which ultimately found its consummation in the first
Seven Year Plan... The third was to... find a place where people could gather
for a period of one or two weeks for the dual purpose of deepening their
understanding of the Faith and preparing them for public teaching..."
These ideas were the genesis of projects which mightily
influenced the growth of the Faith in America and, indeed, in the Baha'i world.
In 1912, when bidding farewell to Baha’is gathered in San Francisco,
'Abdu'l-Baha had been greatly moved and had voiced His hope that "this
amity... shall lead to spirituality in the world, to impart guidance to all who
dwell on earth." Leroy remembered these words and sought to arrange an
amity conference. He found support from Dr. David Starr Jordan of Stanford University,
Rabbi Rudolf I. Coffee and other civic leaders, but had to overcome some
timidity among the Baha'is. At last, they gave their blessing, and the
Conference for World Unity, held at the Palace Hotel, San Francisco, on March
20-22, 1925, was a brilliant success. Shoghi Effendi, "much
interested", hoped it would "prove a starting point for further
important developments", and in 1926-7, a series of World Unity
Conferences were sponsored by the Baha'is in sixteen cities of the United
States and Canada.
Two decades later, shortly before leaving the West, Leroy
took an active part with the Baha’is of the Bay area in arranging another
series of four great public meetings at the Palace Hotel (1943-4), followed a
year later by a wide proclamation of the Faith on the occasion of the first
United Nations Conference in 1945. His youthful vision had indeed attained
maturity.
Leroy's association with Dr. Jordan brought him the offer of
a scholarship for Stanford University: "he seems to me a young man of
marked promise who ought not to lose the advantages, which may be extremely
real, of a college education.” But Leroy could not accept, for his family and
Baha’i responsibilities were already too great; by then his two daughters,
Farrukh and Anita, had been born. Ten years later this decision was fully
vindicated when the Guardian wrote to him: "What the Cause now requires is
not so much a group of highly cultured and intellectual people . . . but a
number of devoted, sincere and loyal supporters who, in utter disregard of
their own weaknesses and limitations, and with hearts afire with the love of
God, forsake their all for the sake of spreading and establishing His
Faith." (Through his secretary, November 14, 1935.)
For some time Leroy had been seeking to implement his idea
of a Baha’i school, and had consulted several believers throughout California.
A fortuitous circumstance led him to John and Louise Bosch in Geyserville, to
find that they had long thought on similar lines and had even expressed to
'Ahdu'l-Baha their desire to dedicate their property to Baha'i service.
As John's seventieth birthday was approaching (August I,
1925), they decided to invite the friends to celebrate it and the Feast of
Kamal under the Big Tree. About one hundred came from nine communities; they
discussed a unified teaching plan and resolved to meet there annually.
Consultation with the National Assembly brought the appointment of John Bosch,
Leroy, and George Latimer to consider the establishment of a Baha'i School;
Geyserville was chosen for its venue and the first session opened in 1927. This
is not the place for its history, unforgettable to early students, nor to extol
all those who contributed to its development, most notably Mrs. Amelia Collins,
nor to appreciate the gift, in the School's ninth year, of its property to the
National Spiritual Assembly, thus making it the first truly Baha'i school. But
these words from Leroy are appropriate: “John and Louise were unique
characters, and their devotion to the Faith, their spirit of dedication, is one
of the strong pillars upon which the school is built... The Guardian has
referred to the Geyserville Summer School as the child of the Administrative
Order. This expresses the whole spirit of the school, how its goals are the
goals of the Faith itself, namely, developing teachers, deepening the
understanding of the believers, and confirming souls." "It would be
no exaggeration to say," wrote Shoghi Effendi, "that the unique
contribution which the Geyserville Summer School has made ... has been to teach
the friends and inspire them to live up to the high standard which the
Teachings inculcate, and thus teach the Cause through the power of example.”
(Through his secretary, March 14, 1939.)
Leroy's first decade in San Francisco had indeed been
productive, and his efforts had widened to include the San Joaquin Valley,
Southern California and Arizona. But in 1932, with his election to the National
Spiritual Assembly - its youngest member- his activities became national and
his labours truly herculean. Shoghi Effendi greeted his election with a
"deep sense of satisfaction" and looked to his "advice and executive
ability" to "lend a fresh impetus... to the work that the Assembly
has arisen to accomplish." (May 30, 1932)
He was at once appointed to the National Teaching Committee
and served as its chairman for fourteen years. This was the period of the First
Seven Year Plan (1937-44), which the Guardian characterized "as the first
and practical step" in fulfilling America's mission under the Divine Plan,
and mid-way in its course as an "urgent immense supreme task". (Cable
to Leroy Ioas, May 14, 1941.)
Leroy was already attuning himself to the coming challenge
and, in May 1932, he submitted a plan of work for the National Teaching
Committee which the Guardian found "most promising". But in fact it
was Shoghi Effendi who was leading the American Baha'is toward their prodigious
task, as his messages between 1932-5 amply attest, and Leroy responded to every
word. In September 1935 be placed before Shoghi Effendi the Committee's plan to
introduce the Faith into the twelve states of the United States where there were
as yet no Baha'is; the Guardian "fully and gladly" endorsed it, and
galvanized the American Community in October by heralding a "new
hour" in the Faith, "calling for nation-wide, systematic, sustained
efforts in teaching field..." (Cable, October 26, 1935.)
The following Convention received this astounding call:
"... Would to God every State within American Republic and every Republic
in American continent might ere termination of this glorious century embrace
the light of the Faith of Baha'u'llah and establish structural basis of His
World Order." The First Seven Year Plan came to birth to fulfil this
tremendous challenge.
And it did fullfil it, for it established Local Spiritual
Assemblies in thirty-four states and provinces of the United States and Canada (including Alaska, Hawaii, and the
District of Columbia) where none had existed in 1937, trebled the number of
localities in North America where Baha'is lived, and achieved its Latin
American goals. It was "the greatest collective undertaking in the annals
of the first Baha'i century," [1] and it was a battle for heroes all the
way.
The records of that time are ample and may be sought. What
here concerns us is Leroy's share, pre-eminently his chairmanship of the
Committee which led the great campaign in North America. The Guardian called it
the “all important National Teaching Committee" and acclaimed its work as
"truly stupendous, highly meritorious and magnificent in all its aspects.
In itself it constitutes a glorious chapter in the history of the Faith in the
North American continent..." (To Leroy loas, December 17, 1943.) And to
Sylvia loas he wrote that "without the steady faith and tireless
devotion" which Leroy had "brought to bear on the teaching work of
North America, the Plan might not have gone ahead as smoothly to victory as it
did." (Through his secretary, July 6, 1944.)
The writer was privileged to experience six years of those
"difficult but happy times", as Leroy wrote, when "we were
struggling through the First Seven Year Plan, with all its implications of
bringing about a balance between individual initiative and group coordination,
in the creative field of teaching."
No words could describe the debt which the American
Community owes to Leroy as chairman and Charlotte Linfoot as secretary of the
National Teaching Committee, in those years of incredible work, anxiety and
strain, which were so joyously crowned with heart-thrilling victory.
III
In November 1946, Leroy received promotion and was
transferred to Chicago by the Southern Pacific Company. Thus began a brief but
useful phase, coinciding with the Second Seven Year Plan, when Leroy lived near
the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar. As a member of the National Spiritual Assembly he had
been a Temple trustee since 1932, but now he was able to assist more actively
as the inner ornamentation proceeded and plans for the landscaping were begun.
For the last three years of this period he was National Treasurer, a critical
post for the completion of this project which had engaged the Baha’is during
most of the twentieth century.
But further horizons were beckoning. In May 1948, Leroy
represented, with four others, the International Baha’i Community at the United
Nations Conference on Human Rights in Geneva. He also participated in the first
European Baha’i Teaching Conference in that city, where he spoke memorably on
the Covenant. Afterwards, he visited Baha'i communities in the ten European
goal countries of the Second Seven Year Plan, and in 1949 became a member of
the European Teaching Committee. It was the beginning of his association with
Baha’i teaching in Europe.
Leroy's reputation outside Baha'i circles was also steadily
increasing. He was always a companionable man, with a ready sense of humor, and
was warmly admired by people from all walks of life. "We believe in
severance but not separation from the world!" he wrote in 1933, and proved
it by the scope of his social and humanitarian activities. Member of the
Commonwealth, Kiwanis and Cosmos Clubs in San Francisco, and of the Rotary,
Skal and Union League Clubs in Chicago, he was also elected to the National Association
for the Advancement of Colored People in San Francisco as its first white
member, and served on the executive committee of the American Association of
Passenger Traffic Officers while working in Chicago. As he added to his
multitudinous enterprises much public speaking, and never concealed his Baha'i
conviction, it is certain that his life was a continuous proclamation of the
Faith of Baha’u’llah to his "legion of friends". [2]
Thus his sudden resignation from his high business
connection, to assist the Faith at its World Centre in Haifa, astonished
colleagues throughout the United States, who yet respected a decision of such
courage and principle.
The effect on his fellow Baha'is was no less far-reaching.
When, in December 1951, the Guardian raised him to the rank of Hand of the
Cause, scores of letters and telegrams arrived from all parts of America and
the world, from individuals and Assemblies, in loving tribute to his past
services and to wish him well. Only three months later these friends were
stunned by the further news of his departure for Haifa. Again their messages
flowed to him, in even greater number, filled with joy, pride, appreciation,
and a sense of immense loss.
"We are bewildered by our loss of a friend and
distinguished worker... It is a shock which we feel deep within."
(National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States.)
"Words are inadequate to express the feelings in our
hearts." (Chicago Local Spiritual Assembly.)
"We were profoundly surprised, grieved and overjoyed
all at the same time... "(Pasadena Local Spiritual Assembly.)
"We are profoundly affected by spirit of dedication
devotion obedience with which you have responded to beloved Guardian's
summons." (New York Local Spiritual Assembly in telegram.)
"You will be greatly missed by the friends" (San
Mateo Local Spiritual Assembly.)
To read these messages is to realize how deeply Leroy's
years of service had influenced the American Baha'is. And his decision was
significant in other ways, for it focused the thoughts of many on the needs at
the World Centre, and prepared them to respond with like promptitude and
sacrifice to the Guardian's call just one year later for pioneers for the World
Crusade.
"It is the most difficult decision I have had to make
in my entire Baha’i life," Leroy wrote to Paul Haney on the eve of his
departure. Yet events had been leading to this end for several months, and well
before his appointment as a Hand of the Cause.
In the spring of 1951, Mrs. Amelia Collins, ever his devoted
friend, on a visit from the Holy Land where she then lived, described the
tremendous and sorrowful burdens of the Guardian. "I was deeply moved,
saddened, and agitated," Leroy wrote. "Only once have I felt more
anguish . . . when the Beloved Master ascended. . ." In October he
received a letter from Shoghi Effendi, expressing the hope that "a time
will come when you can devote more time to the work, and internationally as
well as nationally." (Through his secretary, September 28, 1951.) Striving
to understand the implications of these words. Leroy consulted Milly Collins
and his wife, drew up a statement of his personal position for Mrs. Collins to
present to Shoghi Effendi when she returned, and later was moved by his
appointment as a Hand of the Cause to send this directly to the Guardian. He
received from Shoghi Effendi an invitation to come for consultation, but by
February 15th the Guardian had reconsidered and wrote (through his secretary):
"...what he needs, I might almost say desperately, is a capable, devoted
believer to come and really take the work in hand here, relieve him of constant
strain and details, and act as the secretary-general of the International
Baha'i Council."
We know from Leroy's letters that he faced then a
"terrifically hard" decision, that his "steps... faltered,"
but that with the support of his wife -"a tower of spiritual
strength" - he was able to reply at once, on February 25th: "Sylvia
and I deeply moved privilege serve Beloved Guardian."
He arrived in Haifa on March 17th, leaving Sylvia to settle
their affairs and follow, and carrying to the Guardian the love and greetings
of a host of friends, many of whom had gathered in Temple Foundation Hall to
bid farewell to one who for nearly forty years had served the Faith in America
with all his loyalty and strength.
IV
Before Leroy arrived in Haifa, Shoghi Effendi had already
announced the enlargement of the year-old International Baha'i Council and the
functions of its members, in an historic cablegram which first revealed his
plan for a global ten-year crusade (March 8, 1952). Leroy was both its
Secretary-General and one of the four Hands residing in the Holy Land, and very
soon he became the Guardian's assistant secretary as well.
Not much imagination is needed to realize that Leroy was a
busy man! The fact is brought home more clearly if one turns to the Guardian's
messages to the Baha'i world, announcing the fast-succeeding achievements at
the World Centre during these years, 1952-7. But only the few who lived and
worked in Haifa at this time, handicapped by the austerities of a new State,
the conditions of labour, the interminable procedures of officialdom, the
excessive burdens which they strove to carry, and even their own inexperience
for the tasks assigned, could ever truly say what their life was like in this
period of the Faith's greatest expansion. Looking back on it in 1962, Leroy
remarked, "When I think of the way in which I had to carry on the work
here, alone, on foot, with no auto, in spite of every difficulty, of a new
State, of new people, of situations within the... , community..." What a
contrast, indeed, to his conditions of work in America. And little wonder that
those early years in Haifa changed him from a vigorous man in the prime of life
- "Ioas could have been stepping off a Chicago bus," wrote a Chicago
Tribune reporter, who was hoisted with him to the base of the dome of the
Shrine on a 3-foot square wooden tray - to a man perpetually troubled in
health, in need of long periods of rest and cure which he sought almost
annually in Europe or America. Indeed, by October 1953, with the completion of
the Shrine of the Bab, his heart was already weakened, and in January 1955 the
Guardian was cabling him: "Be not anxious. Rest full month...”
For Shoghi Effendi, having toiled for decades almost alone
and in even more difficult circumstances, well appreciated what his Hands and
Council were performing. As success followed success, Leroy received through
Amatu’l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum a number of cablegrams: "Tell Leroy loving
appreciation...", "delighted victories…”, "deeply appreciate
splendid achievement". And to Leroy's mother he had written, in his own
hand, when her son first came to Haifa: "The work in which your very dear
and highly esteemed son is now so devotedly and actively engaged is highly
meritorious... his self-sacrificing labours will be richly rewarded by
Baha’u’llah." (March 20, 1952.)
One such reward was the naming after him of the Octagon door
of the Shrine of the Bab, soon after he had stayed back from the public
dedication of the Temple in Wilmette to complete the dome of the Shrine, [4]
and another he must have realized when he accompanied Shoghi Effendi to the
base of the dome on the Ninth Day of Ridvan, 1953, and assisted him to place
beneath a golden tile some plaster from the room of the Bab's imprisonment at
Mah-Ku.
The most memorable expression of the Guardian's appreciation
is contained in his last long message to the American Baha'i Community, sent
only six weeks before his passing, in which he praises "the magnificent
and imperishable contribution" made by members of that community,
"singly and collectively, to the rise and establishment of the
institutions of their beloved Faith at its World Centre, through the assistance
given by their distinguished representatives serving in the Holy Land... and he
lists all that had been achieved in "four brief years of unremitting
devotion to the interests of the Ten-Year Plan..." (September 21, 1957.)
A book could be written about these "enduring
achievements", but here only two will be specially mentioned. The
acquisition of the Temple land on Mount Carmel involved most intricate
negotiations. The Guardian had chosen a singularly beautiful site at the
mountain's head, overlooking both sea and city, with a view of the Shrine along
Carmel's flank. Baha’u’llah had visited this land and revealed there His Tablet
of Carmel. Except for the unique problems posed by its purchase, it was an
ideal site. But its position was strategic and the Army controlled the
property, which belonged to the Catholic Church. Leroy needed over two years to
resolve this tangle and obtain the title deeds.
The last service Leroy rendered to his beloved Guardian
while he lived was the one most valued - "the final and definite
purification, after the lapse of no less than six decades, of the Outer
Sanctuary of the Most Holy Shrine of the Baha'i World..." It was the climax
of "a long-drawn- out process" for expropriation by the State of
Israel of the entire property owned and controlled by the Covenant-breakers,
which surrounded Baha'u'llah's resting-place and the Mansion of Bahji. (Shoghi
Effendi, September 21, 1957.) In entrusting this task to Leroy, the Guardian
had told him that all else he had done, even his work for the Shrine of the
Bab, was as silver; to accomplish this assignment would be as gold.
A thrill of happiness went round the Baha'i world when, on
June 3, 1957, the Guardian cabled: "With feelings of profound joy,
exultation and thankfulness, announce... signal, epoch-making victory won over
the ignoble band of breakers of His Covenant...” They had appealed to the
Supreme Court against the expropriation order and had lost, and by September 6,
1957, they and all their belongings had gone from the precincts of the Shrine.
On December 2, 1957, the title to the Shrine of Baha’u’llah, the Mansion, and
all other buildings and lands which the Covenant-breakers had owned there,
passed on Leroy's signature to the Israel Branch of the United States National
Spiritual Assembly, in an historic transaction witnessed also by the Hand of
the Cause Ugo Giachery and Mrs. loas. We who today enjoy the supreme
tranquility and peace of those holy surroundings should pause to recall that
neither the Master nor the Guardian ever walked there without knowing the
presence of those tainted souls.
In all his services at the World Centre in the lifetime of
the Guardian, Leroy knew full well that he was but an instrument guided and
impelled by Shoghi Effendi. Happily, he was an instrument uniquely prepared for
the demanding tasks which were laid upon him. His forty years of preliminary
service to the Cause of Baha'u'llah, his unexcelled loyalty to His Covenant,
his character steeled by experience to unremitting effort and perseverance, and
his practical wisdom, provided the qualities which enabled him to bring them to
fulfilment at that crucial stage of the Faith's development.
And now something must be said of his activities outside the
World Centre. For Leroy managed, between 1953 and 1964, to travel in four
continents. His most important missions were as Shoghi Effendi's special
representative to the first Intercontinental Conference in Kampala in February
1953, when the World Crusade in Africa was launched; and after the Guardian's
passing, to the last of the Intercontinental Conferences at the mid-way point
of the Crusade, held in Djakarta and Singapore, September 1958. Here, as so
many times before and after, Leroy spoke so movingly of Shoghi Effendi
"that every eye in the audience was in tears". He had the power to
evoke the life, the spirit and the very presence of the Guardian, and there are
many of us who will remember him in eternity for this.
Shoghi Effendi sent Leroy to Frankfurt, Germany, in January
1956, to assist that National Spiritual Assembly with its project of erecting
the first European Temple, and to consult on teaching. Again in July 1961 and
in June 1962 he met with the German National Assembly on problems concerning
the Temple.
Two memorable visits were made to the British Isles, the
first in January 1955, on the occasion of the dedication of the British
Haziratu'l-Quds during the annual Teaching Conference, and the second for the
month-long commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of ‘Abdu'l-Baha's sojourn
in Britain in September 1911. He participated in the Northern Irish Summer
School celebration on the very date of the Master's coming (September 4th);
then spoke in Edinburgh and at the national celebration in London on September
8th, after which he met the National Assembly in session and visited seven
other communities in England and South Wales. It was a strenuous schedule for
one not well, but Leroy's love for the Master carried him through as, in the
words of the National Spiritual Assembly, he poured out "spiritual
bounties" on the British friends.
For Leroy, teaching was "the creative phase of the
Faith", the service which brought him the greatest happiness and for which
he had a special genius. After the Guardian's passing and with the approval,
sometimes at the request of his fellow Hands, he found more and more
opportunities to visit Baha'i communities in many lands, always awakening in
those whom he met a deeper love for the Master and the Guardian; a greater
consciousness of the significance of the World Centre, of the functions of the
Hands of the Cause and, after its election, of the Universal House of Justice;
and, an increased determination to play an active part in the Ten Year Plan.
These were his constant themes, the "spiritual realities"; to deepen
understanding of them was, he believed, a particular responsibility of the
Hands. He had always been a perceptive teacher - logical, persuasive, yet mild
-but now, after his years in Haifa, wrote one Baha’i, "your spiritual
power is . . . entirely irresistible".
In 1958 he participated in the Intercontinental Conference
in Chicago and Wilmette, and later that year visited South Africa after the
Conference at Singapore. In 1960 he attended the United States Annual
Convention, spoke thrice at the Geyserville Summer School, and visited a number
of communities in America. This was the year of his daughter Anita's marriage,
followed closely by the unanticipated and tragic death of Farrukh, his elder
daughter. Both had served the Faith internationally as pioneers, bringing much
joy to their parents. In 1961 he met German Baha'is attending a regional
conference in Frankfurt, and imparted "a new energy to the work" in
Switzerland by visiting all twelve of their Local Spiritual Assemblies. In
August and September 1962, though advised to rest for three months, he cut
short his cure to go to Scandinavia (July 30- September I), for a teaching tour
which included the Finnish Summer School in Lahti, a meeting with the National
Spiritual Assembly and Board members, and stops in Helsinki and Turku; meetings
in Sweden in Stockholm, Uppsala, Goteborg and Malmo; consultation with the
National Spiritual Assembly of Denmark and gatherings in Copenhagen;
participation in the Scandinavian Summer School near Halsingborg, Sweden; and
visits to Bergen, Stavanger and Hetland in Norway. On his way to the first
Summer School of Luxembourg (Echternach, September 4-6), he stopped at the Temple
in Frankfurt. Although his public teaching was limited by his damaged heart,
his meetings with the Baha’is brought them “wonderful contributions of
knowledge, spirit and radiance".
The death of Shoghi Effendi in London in November 1957 had
been for Leroy, as for the Baha'is of the world, a wholly-unexpected and
grievous blow. Already he had overspent his health in the work of the World
Centre. There followed his most taxing years when, as one of the nine Hands
elected to serve in Haifa, he faced with them the incalculable problems of this
unparalleled hiatus between the death of the divinely-guided Guardian and tbe
birth of the divinely-ordained Universal House of Justice. That body bas paid
memorable tribute to the services of the Hands of the Cause in this critical
period. For Leroy, except when teaching, it was a troubled time, unfit as he
was to sustain the stresses which beset them. The winter months of 1962-3 were
particularly demanding, with the annual Conclave of the Hands, the crisis of
the Moroccan persecutions, the final months of the Crusade, and the
preparations for the first World Convention and election of the Universal House
of Justice in Haifa, to be followed immediately by the World Congress in London
at the Albert Hall. In all this Leroy played his part.
Unhappily, in London he contracted pneumonia at the opening
of the World Congress and had to recuperate in Germany until the October
meetings of the Hands with the Universal House of Justice, sessions leading to
decisions of the greatest import for the future of the Faith. After these
meetings he departed for the United States for further convalescence in
Washington, D.C. and Bradenton, Florida, where his family, always loyal and
affectionate, surrounded him. Never yielding, he held study classes in both
areas.
The news of his intended American visit had been the signal
for an invitation in July 1963 from the United States National Assembly to
assist them in deepening the new believers and inspiring the community to
greater teaching effort. They renewed their invitation in December; the
opportunity to plan a tour of the South and West came when Leroy accepted an
invitation from the Hands in the Western Hemisphere to attend their January
conference in Wilmette with their Auxiliary Boards. Members returned from that
conference "aglow with spirit and enthusiasm..." for the approaching
Nine Year Plan and their roles in it.
Then followed Leroy's last magnificent service to
Baha'u'llah. From February 22 to April 12, 1964, he travelled to meet the
Baha’is of eight regions, in week-end gatherings in the following centres:
Sarasota and Miami Beach, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; New Orleans; Austin,
Texas; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Phoenix, Arizona; Riverside and Los Angeles,
San Francisco and Oakland, California. A photograph taken in Austin is evidence
of the frailty of his physical constitution, which, strained by his heart and a
now chronic bronchitis, was unequal to the magnitude of this teaching journey ,
and at its close his fatigue and weakness were such that he was unable to
return to Haifa until October. But his spiritual powers were perhaps never
greater, as he unfolded his lofty themes, made vivid for the Baha'is the "vital
spirit emanating always from the World Centre," spurred them, particularly
the youth, to arise as pioneers, and prepared them for the Nine Year Plan. He
met nearly sixteen hundred believers, many of them newly-declared. And at the
close, he represented the Hands in Haifa at the Annual Convention which
launched that Plan in the United States.
Significantly, when in Atlanta and Greenville, South
Carolina, he sensed the latent capacity of the Deep South to recognize
Baha'u'llah. "The spirit of the entire area is afire," he informed
the National Spiritual Assembly, "and if the blaze starts mounting you may
have a conflagration ...” And he also remarked to them on a new development,
that "nearly all of the new Baha'is are young people... the real source of
the power for the rapid spread of the Faith..."
Too many to quote were the letters to Leroy of love and
appreciation for this fruitful journey which crowned his closing years. While
convalescing in Germany he received an encouraging message from the Hands in
Haifa: "The House of Justice is aware of the great need for the type of
deepening in the Faith which you have been able to give the friends in America,
particularly the newer believers and young people who are entering the Faith in
such large numbers." (August 20, 1964.) And a few days later came a
tribute from the United States National Spiritual Assembly: "We cannot
express in words how grateful we are to you and Sylvia for your visit and for
the inspiration which you have given to so many hundreds of the newer
believers." (August 25, 1964.)
It was fitting to include Sylvia, for she was ever Leroy's
strong support, his champion, and his tireless companion in the last months of
his life. He returned to Haifa in October, broken in health but rejoiced in
spirit, surely, that he had carried out to the last ounce of his strength the
Guardian's hope so long ago expressed: "You will, I am sure, persevere
till the very end."
Leroy died, after some weeks in hospital, on July 22, 1965,
at the age of sixty-nine, and lies buried in the Baha’i Cemetery on Mount
Carmel, near to his fellow Hands and life-long colleagues, Amelia Collins and
Horace Holley.
His death brought many testimonies of grief and admiration
from Israelis in all walks of life. He was remembered in memorial services at
the Baha’i Temple in Wilmette, the Geyserville Summer School, and in Baha'i
communities throughout the world. One will find Baha'i institutions bearing his
name, and overlooking the town of Geyserville a Sequoia Redwood grove stands
dedicated to his memory.
One co-worker spoke for all when she wrote to Leroy in 1958:
"What I feel in my heart is, I am certain, echoed in the hearts of
countless of the friends-deep and humble gratitude for the work you have done
and the sacrifices made for our loved Cause."
We are assured by the Universal House of Justice that the
name of Leroy Ioas is immortal in the annals of the Faith.
July 22, 1965 - Cable from the Universal House of Justice to
the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States:
GRIEVE ANNOUNCE PASSING OUTSTANDING HAND CAUSE LEROY IOAS.
HIS LONG SERVICE BAHÁ'Í COMMUNITY UNITED STATES CROWNED ELEVATION RANK HAND
FAITH PAVING WAY HISTORIC DISTINGUISHED SERVICES HOLY LAND. APPOINTMENT FIRST
SECRETARY GENERAL INTERNATIONAL BAHÁ'Í COUNCIL PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE GUARDIAN
FAITH TWO INTERCONTINENTAL CONFERENCES ASSOCIATION HIS NAME BY BELOVED GUARDIAN
OCTAGON DOOR BÁB'S SHRINE TRIBUTE SUPERVISORY WORK DRUM DOME THAT HOLY
SEPULCHRE NOTABLE PART ERECTION INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES BUILDING ALL ENSURE HIS
NAME IMMORTAL ANNALS FAITH. LAID TO REST BAHÁ'Í CEMETERY CLOSE FELLOW HANDS
ADVISE HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL SERVICES.
(Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986)
Notes
[See Baha’i World 16 p. 77]
[1] Shoghi Effendi, cited in ‘The Baha’i Centenary’
(Wilmette Illinois, 1944), p. 171.
[2] Quotation from Circular No. 232, issued by the General
Traffic Manager of the Southern Pacific Company, to announce Leroy's
resignation over the entire nation ...
[3] The carved stone and components of these buildings were
supplied from Italy by the Hand of the Cause Ugo Giachery, Leroy's task being
to supervise their assembly and erection in Haifa.
[4] The naming of the door was announced by Shoghi Effendi
in a message to the Intercontinental Conference in New Delhi, October 1953,
acknowledging Leroy's "assiduous constant care..." (The Baha’i World
vol. XII, p. 239.)
(Adapted from ‘The Memoriam’ section of the Baha’i World
1963-1968’, by Marion Hofman, and from ‘Messages from the Universal House of
Justice 1963-1986’)
A talk by Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas: “In the Days of the Guardian” – given in Johannesburg, South Africa, 1958
A talk by Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas: “In the Days of the Guardian” – given in Johannesburg, South Africa, 1958
Please note that the audio file doesn’t have the opening
portion. It starts from: “I mention this so you can see how Shoghi Effendi had
an insight into everyone…”
