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CHARLES WOLCOTT
1906—1987
DEEPLY GRIEVED PASSING DISTINGUISHED
SERVANT CAUSE GOD, DEDICATED WORKER.
HIS VINEYARD CHARLES WOLCOTT. SELFLESSNESS, HUMILITY, COURAGE, NOBILITY, FAIR-MINDEDNESS, PERSEVERANCE CHARACTERIZED HIS UNINTERRUPTED SERVICES COURSE HALF A CENTURY, H\I HIS CAPACITY
THE Bahá’í WORLD
AS MEMBER AND LATER SECRETARY NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY CRADLE ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER, AS SECRETARY—GENERAL INTERNATIONAL BAHA’I COUNCIL FOLLOWED BY HIS OUTSTANDING LABOURS AS MEMBER UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE SINCE ITS INCEPTION. PRAYING SHRINES PROGRESS HIS RADIANT SOUL, CONFIDENT RICH WELLDESERVED REWARD ABHA, KINGDOM HIS UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION PROGRESS CONSOLIDATION FAITH NORTH AMERICA AND AT WORLD CENTRE. EXTEND LOVING SYMPATHY HIS BELOVED WIDOW WHO SHARED SUPPORTED HIS SERVICES THROUGHOUT PERIOD HIS DISTINGUISHED PROFESSIONAL CAREER, HIS BRILLIANT LABOURS CAUSE GOD, AND TO HIS BEREAVED DAUGHTERS AND FAMILY. ADVISE FRIENDS EVERYWHERE HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL GATHERINGS, INCLUDING COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES IN HIS HONOUR ALL MASHRIQU’L—ADHKARS. Universal House of Justice 27 January 1987
Charles Wolcott was his parents’ first child, born in Flint, Michigan, U.S.A., on 29 September 1906. His father, Frederick Charles Wolcott, an accountant whose business interests were overshadowed by his love for music, formed a small—town orchestra in which his son participated, on the piano and accordion, from an early age. By the time Charles reached high school he had his own four-piece orchestra (piano, banjo, saxophone, drums) for playing at school dances. When he attended the University of Michigan, his larger band, “Charley Wolcott and his Wolverines”, played for faculty (ballroom) dances and his smaller bands for fraternity and sorority (tea) dances. In the 19203 he went to the larger city of Detroit to play piano in hotels and ballrooms with the Jean Goldkette Organization and also performed on radio shows.
Charles married Harriett Marshall, from his hometown of Flint, on 30 August 1928, and soon after they moved to Toronto, Canada, then New York Where, in spite of the
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IN MEMORIAM
Depression, he was always able to find work as a pianist, composer, arranger, or conductor with the Paul Whiteman Band, Benny Goodman, the Dorsey brothers, Cqumbia Records, and network radio programs such as Burns and Allen (George and Gracie), Kate Smith, and Bob Hope.
While the Wolcotts were living in New York City, their two daughters, Sheila and Marsha, were born. The apartment building in which the fami1y lived was managed by a Bahá’í couple, and about 1935 they were introduced to the Faith. Their interest in the Teachings was nurtured in New York, but they did not become Bahá’ís until Iater in Califomia.
Fascinated by the colour and sound developments in motion pictures, Charles moved the family to Hollywood, California, in 1937 and soon began working at the Walt Disney Studios writing music for cartoon shorts, then feature films, such as Pinocchio and Bambi. By 1944 he had become General Musical Director at Disney Studios. In 1950 he transferred to the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios as Associate General Musical Director and in 1958 became General Musical Director. In 1955, after he placed Bill Haley’s song “Rock Around The Clock” in the MGM movie Blackboard Jungle, the “rock and roll” music craze spread worldwide.
Charles and Harriett enrolled in the Bahá’í Faith in Los Angeles in August 1938 and were members of the Los AngeIes community for the next 22 years. During this period he composed music as a setting for some of the prayers of Baha’u’llah including “From the Sweet Scented Streams”, “0 Thou By Whose Name”, and “BIessed is the Spot”
Charles was appointed to be a membier of the Inter-America Bahá’í Teaching Committee (1942—1944); served as chairman of the National Audio-Visual Education Committee (1946—1948); was elected to the Los Angeles Local Spiritual Assembly (1948—1960) and served as chairman or Vice—Chairman; served
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Charles Wolcott
as chairman of the American Southwest Teaching Committee (1950—1952); and served as chairman of the American National Teaching Committee (1953—1956). In 1953, he was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States on which he served as Vioe—chairman until 1960.
It was during this period that the Bahá’í world lost its beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi. When the Hand of the Cause of God Horace Holley, who had served on the National Assembly since 1923 and spent 34 years as its secretary, was called to the Bahá’í World Centre as one of the nine Hands to serve in the Holy Land, Charles was elected secretary of the National Assembly in 1960. In January 1960 he resigned his position as head of the Music Department at MGM Studios and he and Harriett moved to Wilmette, Illinois, so he could take up his duties in the National Bahá’í Center.
In January 1951, Shoghi Effendi had formed a Bahá’í International Council to assist him in the work of “expansion and consolidation of the international institutions
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of the Faith” [Shoghi Effendi, letter to the American Bahá’í community dated 19 July 1956, cited in The Bahá’í World, volume XIII, 395]. Following the passing of the Guardian in 1957, the Hands of the Cause of God——who administered the Faith from the passing of Shoghi Effendi until the election of the Universal House of Justice in 1963—called for the election of nine members for the International Bahá’í Council by postal ballot from all National and Regional Spiritual Assemblies in the Bahá’í world at Riḍván 1961. The elected Council was to work under the direction and supervision of the Hands of the Cause residing in the Holy Land for a two~year term of office, and would cease to exist upon the election of the first Universal House of Justice. At Ridyan 1961, Charles Wolcott was one of the nine elected to the International Bahá’í Council and was elected by that body to be its secretary-general.
Charles and Hairiett moved from the United States to the Bahá’í World Centre in 1961 to take up his two—year post on the International Bahá’í Council, not knowing that his service to the Faith would keep him in that Holy Spot for another 26 years until his death.
On 21 April 1963, the first day of Riḍván in the year 120 BE, the Centenary anniversaiy of the Declaration by Baha’u’llah of His sacred Mission, the election of the Universal House of Justice was held in the House of the Master in Haifa. The delegates invited to this first International Convention were the 504 members of the 56 National and Regional Spiritual Assemblies who were charged with the sacred privilege and duty of voting for the nine people of the Bahá’í world community who would cornprise the membership of this firstTUniversal
House of Justice. The results of the election
were announced at the close of the morning session of the Convention on 22 April. Charles Wolcott, who had received the highest number of votes, found himself now a member of the Universal House of Justice to
THE Bahá’í WORLD
which he would be re-elected to subsequent terms in 1968, 1973, 1978 and 1983. He died suddenly, toward the end of his last term, on 26 January 1987.
Throughout their 26 years at the Bahá’í World Centre, Harriett devoted herself to assisting in various offices at the Centre as well as being Charles’ lifelong companion during 58 years of marriage. Their love of music was sustained by regular attendance at the performances of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. And, as a gift to the Bahá’í friends at the World Centre, they frequently opened their home for musical evenings. The demanding work as a member of the Universal House of Justice left little time or energy for creating musical compositions, but music listening was a constant source of strength and spiritual enrichment. Amongst his papers was found the compilation “Extracts from the Bahá’í Writings on Music” in which he had underlined certain passages such as: “We have made music a ladder by Which souls may ascend to the realm on hig ” [Kitab—i—Aqdas]; “A wonderful song giveth wings to the spirit and filleth the heart with exaltation” [Bahá’í World Faith, 334]; and “Music is one of the important arts.... although music is a material affair, yet its tremendous effect is spiritual, and its greatest attachment is to the realm of the spirit... In this Cause the art of music is of paramount importance” [Abdu’l-Bahá, “Table Talk,” ‘Akká, July 1909, quoted in Herald offlze South, 13 January 1933, 2—3].
For the occasion of his 80th birthday in September 1986, he and Han‘iett travelled to Santa Monica, California, to join most of their family in a celebration. This was the last time they were all to be together. If there was any regret in his happy and productive life it was only this, as he wrote to his granddaughter who was pioneering in Yugoslavia:
It’s sad not to be present during these
precious days when one’s grandchildren
and great grandchildren are spreading their wings. But there are compensations, however, when we realize the wonderful
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IN MEMORIAM
services being rendered by the various
family members... Nana and I send you
loads of love, sorry it can’t be lemon pie too. Maybe next year, Nana will make one for you when you come [to Haifa].
Hasta la Vista! [signed] Baba.
The letter is dated August 1986 and the wish could not be fulfilled. Five months later he passed away and was buried in the Bahá’í Cemetery at the foot of Mount Carmel after a long and distinguished life dedicated for almost half a century to the Blessed Beauty, Baha’u’llah.
Memorial services were held throughout the world including one arranged by his wife and daughters in the Los Angeles Bahá’í Center on 12 April 1987. One of Charles’ music colleagues from his days at MGM Studios, Johnny Green, closed his “Appreciation” remarks saying: “Throughout the years since the end of our MGM togetherness, Charles and I have remained close through regular correspondence and intermittent inperson Visits. His letters shared with me the difficulties and horrors that the Bahá’ís were experiencing [in Iran] and his efforts to deal with these soul—searing situations. And, through it all, the beauty of his faith, the puiity of his spirit, his divinely inspired patience, calm and kindness imbued life with a strong feeling of hope. All of you here know, even far better than I, what a dynamic force for good Charles Wolcott was, not only in the wide circles where he was personally known, but throughout this sorely troubled world. It was my privilege to spend a couple of hours with Charles in person here shortly before his final retum to Haifa [in September 1986]. How eagerly he was looking forward to his working retirement! And now he has been called home... In my heart of hearts I know that Charles Wolcott’s noble and courageous spirit has been given as an inspirational beacon to all of us to make this world the far better place that it just has to be because he passed this way.”
SHEILA WOLCOTT BANANI
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