Bahá’í World/Volume 18/Honor Kempton
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HONOR KEMPTON
1892—1981
‘How proud I feel of the spirit that so powerfully animates you. My prayers will, I assure you, accompany you on your great and historic adventure. Persevere no matter how great the obstacles in your way. Future generations will glorify your deed and emulate your example.’
No words other than these, written to Honor Kempton on 12 March 1939 by the beloved Guardian, could more adequately pay tribute to the life of this indefatigable servant of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, the spiritual mother of both Alaska and of Luxembourg.
Born on 30 September 1892 in Maidenhead, England (four months after the passing of Bahá’u’lláh), she was raised by her mother in the spirit of the Anglican Church. During World War I Honor served as a Red Cross volunteer, and became engaged to an American surgeon whom she followed to the United States after the war. She stayed in the Chicago area and, after the death of her fiance in a car accident, moved to Wilmette to live with an English family. Here she first heard of the Bahá’í Faith and became attracted to its teachings. In 1935 she moved to San Francisco, attended firesides in the home of Leroy and Sylvia Ioas and soon after declared her belief in Bahá’u’lláh. She was elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly and immediately engaged in teaching.
When the Guardian cabled the American Bahá’í community on 26 January 1939 calling for NINE HOLY SOULS to open the remaining virgin territories of North America,1 Honor ' See Shoghi Effendi, Messages to America, p. 16. The
unsettled territories were Alaska, Delaware, Nevada,
South Carolina, Utah. Vermont. West Virginia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.
[Page 749]
IN MEMORIAM
A
Honor Kempton
immediately responded by volunteering to go to Alaska, a place which at that time some might have deemed not a suitable locality for an unattached woman in her late forties to make her home. In her biographical notes Honor writes, ‘I was, however, quite sure that Alaska was the place for me. I felt that the Guardian was speaking to me when he sent that message.’ And so Honor set out upon her spiritual odyssey which was to extend throughout six successive international teaching plans given to the Bahá’í world by Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice, and which was to encompass Alaska and the European continent. Her decision to go to Alaska had come as the result of a mystical experience of great intensity. Anchorage was her chosen goal. Although well-meaning friends diverted her attention to Juneau she was led, again by what she felt to be divine promptings, to settle in Anchorage.
On 18 April 1939 she disembarked at Juneau. She did not find employment there but assisted a new-found friend who operated a bookshop. Two months later she moved to
749
Anchorage and established the town’s first bookstore. ‘The Book Cache’, as she called her shop, was later described by a former Governor of the State as ‘the cultural center of Alaska’. After four discouraging months, during which those she contacted appeared to show no real interest in the Bahá’í Faith, Janet Whiteneck (later Stout), a seeker, enrolled—the first person in Alaska to do so during the first Seven Year Plan. Soon other pioneers arrived, new believers were accepted into the community, and in September 1943 the first Local Spiritual Assembly was formed. During World War II Honor became an American citizen and continued to find new ways to spread the news of the coming of Bahá’u’lláh. In exchange for book reviews that she prepared for a radio station she was given an opportunity to present weekly radio broadcasts 0n the Faith. In 1944 she attended the National Convention in Wilmette as Alaska’s first delegate.
In 1946 Honor, who was then in her midfifties, proposed settling in Europe. Shoghi Effendi approved the suggestion provided her departure from Alaska would not in any way affect the stability of the Cause there. After an extensive teaching trip in England, undertaken with the encouragement of the Guardian, and a visit to her family, she arrived in February 1947 in Luxembourg, the smallest of the ten goal countries still unopened to the Faith in the second Seven Year Plan. Soon joined by other pioneers, she witnessed the declaration of faith of the first LuXembourg believer in December 1947. Until her departure, shortly before the formation of the first Local Spiritual Assembly in Luxembourg, Honor remained the focal centre of the many teaching and deepening activities initiated by the small group of believers there.
In January 1949 she moved to Geneva,
Switzerland, to serve as the representative of
the European Teaching Committee at the
International Bahá’í Bureau. In her new
function she helped to organize the annual
European Teaching Conferences, including
the International Teaching Conference held in
Stockholm in 1953 which launched the Ten
Year Crusade in that continent. She maintained a constant correspondence with the
World Centre, and with pioneers, new believers
and young Local Spiritual Assemblies through
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out Europe, and received many travelling teachers and other visitors, amongst whom were almost all the Hands of the Cause. She also served as a member of the Italo-Swiss Regional National Spiritual Assembly.
When the International Bureau was closed in 1957, Honor opened to the Faith several goal cities in France, including Lille and Nancy. After a visit to England, where her mother declared her belief in Bahá’u’lláh at age ninety-nine, the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States asked Honor if she would be willing to devote the remainder of her life to pioneering, no matter where. Readily consenting, she was asked to return to Luxembourg. Thus, in 1959, in her sixty-sixth year, she began to add the final laurels to a life already crowned by achievements. She opened to the Faith the industrial south and the agricultural north of Luxembourg, leaving behind her flourishing communities in Eschsur-Alzette and Ettelbrueck. During this time she served on the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Benelux countries. In 1963. as a delegate from Luxembourg, she attended the International Bahá’í Convention in Haifa for the election of the first Universal House of Justice.
She moved to Kopstal—Bridel in 1973 and lived with Miss Suzette Hipp, the first Luxembourg believer, a move which enabled the last Local Spiritual Assembly of the Nine Year Plan in that country to be formed. In addition to serving on the Local Spiritual Assembly she continued to teach. to pray for new souls to discover the Cause 'of Bahá’u’lláh, to deepen and encourage her fellow believers, to correspond with old and new friends in Alaska and Europe, to make plans to open yet other localities in Luxembourg, and to serve on national committees. In 1976 she made a short visit to Alaska where she attended the International Conference in Anchorage and made a trip to Barrow, the Eskimo community dear to her heart.
Although physically weakened through advanced age and failing health she remained spiritually active until her last breath, thus dying in ‘battle dress’ as she had always wished to do. At her passing on 24 February 1981 the National Spiritual Assembly of Luxembourg, deploring the loss of this ‘dearly beloved, much admired’ believer, reported
THE BAHA’
1’ WORLD
that ‘until her last moment she was eager to hear of the progress of her beloved Faith and to give her part to its development . . . Her unfailing fervour, her complete dedication and steadfast service’, the National Assembly averred, ‘will remain a shining example to all believers.’
On 27 February the Universal House of Justice sent the following cable to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States:
ASCENSION ABHA KINGDOM OUTSTANDING DEARLY LOVED MAIDSERVANT BAHAULLAH HONOR KEMPTON IN HER NINETIETH YEAR AND AT FINAL PIONEER POST KOPSTAL LUXEMBOURG TERMINATES FORTY FIVE YEARS DEDICATED SERVICE CAUSE GOD. RESPONDING IMMEDIATELY BELOVED GUARDIANS CALL IN 1939 FOR NINE HOLY SOULS TO OPEN REMAINING VIRGIN AREAS NORTH AMERICA SHE PIONEERED TO ALASKA BECAME MOTHER THAT FLOURISHING COMMUNITY. [N 1947 SHE BECAME FIRST PIONEER T0 GRAND DUCHY LUXEMBOURG AND FOR REST OF HER LIFE SERVED WITH GREAT DISTINCTION IN EUROPEAN CONTINENT ULTIMATELY SETTLING LUXEMBOURG AND RECOGNIZED MOTHER THAT COMMUNITY. HER LIFE STEADFAST DEDICATION CONSTITUTES BRILLIANT EPISODE EARLY YEARS FORMATIVE AGE FAITH. ADVISE HOLD MEMORIAL SERVICE MOTHER TEMPLE WEST BEFITTING TRIBUTE SERVANT BLESSED BEAUTY WHOSE SHINING RECORD EMBLAZONED ANNALS AMERICAN BAHAI COMMUNITY. OFFERING ARDENT PRAYERS SACRED THRESHOLD BOUNTIFUL REWARD PROGRESS SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.
To the National Spiritual Assembly of Luxembourg on 26 February the Universal House of Justice cabled:
PASSING OUTSTANDING MAIDSERVANT BAHAULLAH HONOR KEMPTON SEVERS ONE MORE LINK HISTORIC PERIOD IMPLEMENTATION BELOVED MASTERS DIVINE PLAN CONTINENTAL EUROPE. HER OUTSTANDING SERVICES THAT CONTINENT AND ALASKA CONSTITUTE BRILLIANT EPISODE SHED LUSTRE ANNALS FORMATIVE AGE FAITH. REQUESTING NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY UNITED STATES HOLD MEMORIAL GATHERING MOTHER TEMPLE WEST. ADVISE HOLD BEFITIING MEMORIAL MEETINGS ALL BAHAI COMMUNITIES GRAND DUCHY. ASSURE ARDENT PRAYERS BOUNTIFUL REWARD PROGRESS SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.