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IN MEMORIAM
2
John William Allen
JOHN WILLIAM ALLEN 1907—1980 Knight of Bahá’u’lláh
He knew very little of his new home. So when he and his wife Valera arrived at the border of Swaziland in a rented car on 19 April 1954, they had with them full camping provisions; though they never had to use them. They were responding to a letter from Shoghi Effendi urging them to take up residence in a virgin Bahá’í territory before the end of the first year of the Ten Year Crusade. God had granted their wish to join the legions of the Knights of Bahá’u’lláh. At that time they had no way of knowing that Swaziland would be their home for the rest of their lives. Nor could they know that this colonial territory would emerge as an independent nation before John’s death on 31 August 1980, with more than 5,000 Bahá’ís; with its own National Spiritual Assembly recognized by the government; with national, regional and local Bahá’í Centres; with the Leroy Ioas Bahá’í Teaching Centre named after John’s longtime friend and confidant; and with other endowments.
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Behind this spiritual triumph, guided always by Shoghi Effendi with whom the Allens had extensive correspondence and whom they visited while on pilgrimage in 1954, is the lifestory of a man with the clear vision that the Cause of God must be the beacon toward which his entire life must be oriented to give it meaning and direction and success.
John Allen was born on 16 May 1907 in Auburn, California. His talent for organization and leadership emerged early. As a teenager he took full responsibility for managing a fruit orchard when his father fell ill. -He was an excellent athlete and played on the football team at the College of the Pacific. He married at the beginning of the great depression and supported his family during those very difficult years through his initiative, imagination and tenacity as an automobile salesman. In 1945 he opened his own automobile dealership which grew and prospered until he left to pioneer to Swaziland.
John’s relationship to the Cause of Baha’-u’llah developed through his marriage. His wife, Valera, had become a Bahá’í in 1925, well before they had even met. A year after their marriage they moved to Sacramento. When the only Bahá’í couple in that town came to call, they simply assumed that John was a Bahá’í and he joined in the teaching activities. In those days there were no enrolment cards.
His business skills in bidding on government surplus at the end of World War II were put to use to serve the Faith. He secured for the Bahá’í faith registration as a charitable organization. Under this registration the Bahá’ís were able to purchase government surplus at more than a ninety per cent discount on bid price. In his capacity as chairman of the Maintenance Committee at the Geyserville Bahá’í School, he equipped the school, from dormitories to kitchen, for almost nothing.
John Allen was a builder both of physical edifices and spiritual communities, and the two came together in his service to the Faith in Southern Africa. He was never happier than on the frequent occasions when he negotiated for a particularly difficult purchase of land, or the permits to build, or was able to lay out a new building. It was even his good fortune to be in Haifa when the Guardian asked the
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Hand of the Cause of God Ugo Giachery to lay out the position of the Archives Building. John helped Dr. Giachery drive the stakes and stretch the strings which marked the location of the first building to arise on the Arc around which will be located the international institutions of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.
He was a generous man. He helped pioneers settle in Swaziland, obtaining lists of employment opportunities, corresponding with pioneer committees, negotiating for residence permits, jobs, housing, cars, and often inviting newlyarrived pioneers to accept the hospitality of his home. Many times he contributed material support to make it possible for them to remain in Swaziland. He assisted with the education of many young Swazi students, some of whom lived in his own home.
Automobiles were a lifetime preoccupation. As a high school student he built his own ‘buggy’ from the frame up, selling it to raise funds for college. Cars were designed for use and he did not spare them. In the early days when there were no paved roads in Swaziland he might drive more than an hour one way over very rough roads to collect a Swazi Bahá’í to attend a Nineteen Day Feast or a group of seekers to come to a fireside, repeating the journey when he took them home the same evening. Years later he wore out two trucks, even as his own health was failing, carting the materials and supervising the construction of two regional Bahá’í Centres, in Hlatikulu and Piggs’ Peak, each a two—hour drive. He was appointed to the first Auxiliary Board by the Hand of the Cause Musé Banéni with responsibility for Northern and Southern Rhodesia, Nyasaland and Mozambique. Travelling in those countries over difficult roads he would sometimes carry a full set of tyres on the roof—rack to prevent delays. One of his strong points was his ability to anticipate both needs and consequences in the most diverse of circumstances.
As well as assisting in the spiritual development of Swaziland, John sought, with two of his sons, to participate in its economic advancement by rescuing a moribund pineapple industry. A noteworthy achievement was the establishment of a Swazi Farmers’ Pineapple Settlement Scheme under which Swazi farmers, for the first time ever, were enabled
THE BAHA‘I’ WORLD
to purchase and operate their own pineapple farms.
In the early teaching plans of the Guardian, the task of building world order fell to few hands. While in the United States John served on the Geyserville School Committee, the National Youth Committee and the National Teaching Committee. At the beginning of the Ten Year Crusade, when he was amember of the Asian Teaching Committee, he would laugh and say it was the committee’s job to send Bahá’í pioneers to countries and islands neither they nor anyone on the committee had ever heard of. Nonetheless, he and his fellow committee members succeeded in turning naive intentions of devoted Bahá’ís into the reality of service. As always, he was a salesman, with the gift of convincing people of their worth and their ability to accomplish things they feared to hope for, and to serve in ways they did not dream to be possible.
And then he came to Swaziland to become an example of what is possible if you have the courage to try and the determination to stay with it. The Faith quickly. took root and the early Swazi believers were carefully nourished and deepened. Several members of the Royal Family became Bahá’ís. Soon a Regional National Spiritual Assembly was formed for Southern Africa and he served as a member of that body, and of its daughter National Spiritual Assembly in Swaziland, for many years. Through triumph and heartbreak, John and Valera persisted at their post for more than a quarter-century. The Cause of God continues to grow in Swaziland, nurtured by the efforts at various times of almost a hundred pioneers, but increasingly its destiny must lie in the” hands of the local believers taught so carefully and well.
John was the head of a large, active Bahá’í family, in addition to being an example of service to the Bahá’í world. His three sons, with their wives. have all served as Bahá’í pioneers. All eleven of his grandchildren are active in their service to the Faith as pioneers, travelling teachers and members of National and Local Spiritual Assemblies. J ohn lived to see the birth of his first great granddaughter at the pioneering post of her parents in Zimbabwe.
John Allen was a member of the National
Spiritual Assembly of Swaziland when he died
at Stanford, California, while on a visit to
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celebrate his fiftieth wedding anniversary. It
was the bounty of God that his family,
gathered from all over the world, were able to
share the celebration of fifty years of devoted
service to family, profession, and the vision of
World Order, before his peaceful ascension.
On 1 September 1980 the Universal House of
Justice cabled:
HEARTS GRIEVED PASSING KNIGHT BAHAULLAH DISTINGUISHED PIONEER PROMOTER FAITH JOHN ALLEN. HIS RADIANCE PERSEVERANCE AUDACITY IN DEVOTED SERVICES FAITH IN NORTH AMERICA AND PARTICULARLY SOUTHERN AFRICA OVER SEVERAL DECADES SET SHINING EXAMPLE SERVANTS CAUSE GOD. ADVISE HOLD MEMORIAL GATHERINGS THROUGHOUT SWAZILAND BEFITI'ING HIS STATION. PRAYING SHRINES PROGRESS HIS NOBLE SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.
Reporting on the memorial services held throughout Swaziland, the Swaziland Bahá’í News stated: ‘The life and sacrifices of dear J ohn Allen will long remain a shining example to all the believers in Swaziland to followthis Knight of Bahá’u’lláh who brought us God’s Message for our time.’
DWIGHT W. ALLEN
