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ALLAN RAYNOR
1910—1979
Allan Raynor’s legacy was formed with the tools of integrity, concentration and obedience. Long after the thousands of Allan’s students and friends have themselves found their own ways to the Abhá Kingdom, the Canadian Bahá’í community will still be building on the foundations of his achievements. Allan Frederick Raynor was the eldest of four children. He was born in Toronto, Canada, at midnight on 31 August 1910 of Anglo—Irish Protestant ancestry. His father, Fred, a hard-working merchant, was a stem disciplinarian. His mother, Bertha, instilled in her children a profound respect and love for God and His worship. Both Allan and his younger sister, Joyce, were in time privileged to recognize the station of Bahá’u’lláh. Allan’s early years were difficult, beset by illnesses and the economic crisis of the late 19205. He left school for a secure job at Toronto City Hall where he stayed for seven years. In 1936 a new opportunity offered itself which was to change the course of his life. He won a job as a door-to-door life insurance salesman in Ottawa and worked in both Ontario and Quebec. Many of his clients were French Canadians, so he learned enough French to do his job. Despite the trauma of the sudden death of his father in 1937 he was able to concentrate on self—education. He had already studied business administration by correspondence, and now he prepared for his professional designation. Chartered Life Underwriter. So successful was he in his new business that he soon came to the attention of senior company management. Among those managers was ‘one John A. Robarts who was looking for bright, enthusiastic recruits. Allan was transferred back to Toronto in 1937. In time he became a founder of the Estate Planning Institute of Canada and gained wide
THE BAHA‘I’ WORLD
Allan Raynor
recognition for his dedication, sincerity and integrity.
His first acquaintance with Bahá’ís was in 1934 at a gathering organized by W. J. Christie Of Parry Sound in northern Ontario. It was there that he met Lloyd Gardner.
In 1942 Allan met and married Evelyn Marie Johnson, daughter of a mixed ProtestantCatholic family of Toronto merchants. In that same year he joined the Canadian Army. Allan had been strong and healthy. However, a blood infection attacked his ears which had already been weakened by the scarlet fever of his youth, and he was discharged from the Army with only ten per cent hearing.
Allan sought to aid his fellows. He was so concerned with the effects of alcohol on both fellow soldiers and friends that he travelled to New York City to research, then became a founder and active member of Alcoholics Anonymous in Toronto. Throughout his life he continued to be singularly generous not only with his time but with his earnings.
Throughout this period of early testing, Allan was sustained by his new friend and manager, John A. Robarts, who stepped into a role which Allan’s own father had never
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really known how to fill. John and Allan spent many evenings together, Allan unburdening himself and John listening, waiting, counselling and offering encouragement.
In 1945 the war ended, an important year for Allan who recognized that ‘I had no religion for my newborn son and I thought I should have one’. During a visit to the Robarts’ home he asked to borrow a Bahá’í book. While John sought out just the right one for his dearly loved friend, Allan began to read a book of Bahá’í prayers. In those few words he recognized the Voice of God. No more reading was necessary—Allan had found his Lord.
Allan’s enthusiasm could never be ignored, least of all by his wife. Evelyn was challenged by this new belief. When she was forced to stop teaching Sunday School because her husband was considered to be a ‘pagan’, Evelyn accepted the challenge. She studied by herself and then accepted the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, contributing both a fresh and vigorous presence to the Canadian Bahá’í community and an outstanding example of warmth and hospitality. Together, Allan and Evelyn joined the Gardners, George Spendlove and others to form the first Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of North York, a borough of Toronto. The tragic loss of an infant daughter, Susan, .in 1952 marked Allan deeply but a healing Acompensation arrived with the birth of first Bruce, then Rosemary, to keep Doug and John company.
In 1945 Allan was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada. It was then that he began to make sterling contributions to Bahá’í life in Canada. During this period from 1954 to 1960 he served the National Assembly as vice-chairman and additionally chaired the National Teaching Committee. He again served on the National Spiritual Assembly in 1963—1964. It was also during this period that his intense need to understand as much as he could began to stimulate so many others. Study at Canadian Summer Schools took on a special meaning when Allan was there to ask, ‘On what page of the Writings did you find that?’ Many youth of that and later periods attracted his attention, his patience and his very generous devotion to ensure their fullest possible understanding of the fundamental verities of the
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Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
In 1956 Allan made his first pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The joy of pilgrimage under the guidance of Shoghi Effendi became the fulcrum against which he applied the lever of his convictions. He not only experienced the exaltation of this visit but, to his embarrassment, illness required him to extend his stay, as is noted in Messages to Canada, as a guest of the World Centre. The beloved Guardian took full advantage of the visit to enquire about the progress of the Cause in Canada (and in particular to clarify the status of the purchase of the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds), and then used Allan’s ongoing trip to South Africa to assure a direct communication with the beleaguered friends in Egypt via this trusted courier.
The sudden passing of the Guardian in 1957 was deeply felt by all who remember it. No sooner had Allan learned the news than he left on the next airplane for London. His grief was, however, a mixture of personal loss and an apprehension of danger for the Bahá’í community, a fear that attempts would be made to Violate the Covenant Of Bahá’u’lláh. He intensified his own deepening in the Covenant—which was to be the central theme of his teaching for the rest of his life—and then launched upon his mission. He travelled across Canada sharing with the friends his experiences at the table of Shoghi Effendi, his study of Gleam'ngs from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and his methodical but vibrantly enthusiastic conviction of the inviolability of the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh. He wrote a brochure on the Covenant in which he collected and documented the Writings on this subject. He committed himself totally to this work until the Canadian Bahá’í community had formed itself into a shield of the Covenant. When the assaults came from those misguided souls who had been deceived by their own vanity, Canadian Bahá’ís were not swayed. They knew the reality of their Covenant with Bahá’u’lláh. Allan’s service was recognized in 1978—1979 in his appointment as an assistant to Auxiliary Board member for protection, Carol Bowie.
When no longer serving on the National
Spiritual Assembly, Allan handled several
special assignments. In 1962 he organized the
travel of Canadian Bahá’ís to the 1963 World
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Congress in London, and in 1968, to Sicily and
Israel for the commemoration of the centenary of the arrival of Bahá’u’lláh in the Holy
Land. In 1971 he co—ordinated the North
Atlantic Oceanic Conference in Iceland. But
throughout this period he was most active on
the variOUS committees dealing with the legal
affairs of the Faith in Canada. Their overall
mandate was to ‘assure the recognition
of the independent nature of the Faith in
the eyes of government’. Allan patiently
negotiated recognition of Bahá’í marriage
with the governments of many Canadian
provinces, securing amendments to provincial
legislation in Alberta and Nova Scotia. He
deepened the knowledge of Bahá’ís across
Canada on the unique corporate status of
Local Spiritual Assemblies. In 1971 the
National Spiritual Assembly created the Office
of Legal Affairs to enable Allan to perform
these several duties as an executive agent to
the National Assembly.
Allan‘s active professional work had ended in 1968. A semi-retirement was warranted by the early onset of arteriosclerosis and an aneurysm. Time was limited. Indeed, one doctor whom Allan knew well confided to him that he would probably live for ten more years. Thoroughly professional in planning his life, Allan knew he had work yet to do and he did it. In 1970 he organized a pilgrimage to Israel and Iran for fifteen Canadian Bahá’ís including his whole family. He again made pilgrimage to Haifa in 1973 and in 1977. During this last visit Allan sought the spiritual guidance and strength to face his ultimate test. From his eXtensive experience with doctors in life insurance he knew that his time had come. In September 1977 his bladder was removed.
The Bahá’í friends offered Allan their prayers. While he welcomed these prayers he repeatedly asked that they be not for his health but for his steadfastness. His fear of God was real and tangible. During the last months of his life he continued to teach and deepen the friends. In December 1978 he discovered that the ulcer in his bladder had been a tumour and had spread. His lungs were affected. On 21 March 1979 he was given six months to live.
He was determined to remain active. The ‘Coping with Cancer’ agency were so impressed by his positive attitude that he was
THE Bahá’í’ WORLD
among five patients who were interviewed extensively for a film on cancer treatment. Throughout the last summer of his life Allan was in and out of hospital for chemotherapy. But he continued to travel and to conduct deepening classes on the Covenant. In his hospital room he kept teaching. Between visitors he telephoned his farewell message to other friends. To his last day he repeated his request for prayers for his steadfastness. When the time came, Allan was able to show all those who had prayed for him the power of their prayers. He reached out for his tattered copy of Gleanings and clutched it to his heart. With that, in the early hours of 25 September 1979, Allan Raynor ascended to meet his Lord.
So moving and eloquent was he at the hour of his death that Canada’s national newspaper printed a major article on his life. Roger White published in The Witness Of Pebbles his poem written in tribute to Allan—‘In Recognition’—which was inspired during Allan’s 1977 pilgrimage. And in his Spirit in Action: Teaching the Bahá’í Faith, Nathan Rutstein paid homage in a chapter called ‘The Example of Allan Raynor’.
In its cable of 27 September 1979 the Universal House of J ustice paid final tribute in these words:
SADDENED LEARN PASSING ALLAN RAYNOR DEVOTED STALWART SERVANT BLESSED BEAUTY PILLAR FAITH CANADA MANY YEARS SERVICE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PROMOTER FAITH TO LAST MOMENT EARTHLY LIFE. KINDLY CONVEY WIFE FAMILY LOVING CONDOI.ENCES ASSURANCE ARDENT PRAYERS SACRED THRESHOLD PROGRESS HIS NOBLE SOUL ABHA KINGDOM. SUGGEST HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL MEETING HIS BEHALF.
DOUG RAYNOR
