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OBITUARIES
Alfred Owen Battrick
On 14 April 1995 in Tahiti. Owen Battrick was born in Middlesex, England, on 6 December 1919 and enrolled in the Bahá’í community in 1953. He rendered devoted services to the Bahá’í Faith for four decades, teaching primarily in Europe and Australasia and pioneering to New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands in 1968 with his wife, Jeannette. His contributions to administration include eleven years on the Board of Counsellors in Australasia and service on the National Spiritual Assemblies of the British Isles, the Southwest Pacific, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. He passed away while on a teaching trip to Tahiti.
Salvator “Sue ” Benatar
On 5 April 1995 in South Africa. Born in 1917, “Sue” Benatar was the third Rhodesian and first white to become a Bahá’í in the southern African region, in 1955. He served as a member of the
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Auxiliary Board for a broad region of southern Africa and a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of South and West Africa. In 1977, he and his wife, Sylvia, pioneered to South Africa. A professional photographer, he served in this capacity for several international Bahá’í conferences.
Carmen de Bumfato
In April 1994 in Mexico. Born in the United States and educated in the US, Guatemala, and Mexico, Carmen de Burafato specialized in the arts, languages, and business administration. She became a Bahá’í in California in 1953 and moved to Mexico in 1957 to fulfill a goal of the Ten Year Plan. In that country, she served on the National Spiritual Assembly (with her husband, Sam) and on the Auxiliary Board, and in 1968 she was appointed a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors for the Americas. In 1975 she represented the
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Bahá’í International Community at the first United Nations International Women’s Conference. She traveled constantly throughout Central America and the Caribbean and shared the Bahá’í teachings with presidents and ministers of state.
Pieter J. de Vogel
On 5 March 1995 in Australia. Born 28 December 1930 in Rotterdam, H01land, he became a Bahá’í in 1956. He played a crucial role in the development of the Australian Bahá’í community through his almost three decades of service on the National Spiritual Assembly, culminating in the establishment of the Office of Government Affairs. He served as the first full-time secretary of the National Assembly, acted as national treasurer, and presented the Bahá’í Faith to a number of prominent people, including two Prime Ministers. He and his wife, Kay, raised two daughters.
Enos Epyeru
On 1 March 1995 in Uganda. Born in 1917 in Opot, Teso, Uganda, he was the second of the Teso tribe to accept the Bahá’í Faith in that country (1952), after the Hand of the Cause of God Enoch Olinga. He served on Local Spiritual Assemblies and on the National Spiritual Assembly of Uganda, pioneered to Kenya during the Ten Year Plan, taught the Faith in Monrovia, Liberia, and translated Bahá’í literature into Ateso. A teacher by profession, he and his wife, Edisa Ilemungolet, raised six children.
Arthur Bonshaw Irwin
On 10 June 1994 in Canada. Arthur Irwin, born 6 June 1915 in Vancouver, Canada, spent much of his 47 years as a Bahá’í teaching the Faith t0 the native peoples of Canada, Alaska, and the Caribbean. He and his wife, Lily Ann, established the first Native
Indian F riendship Center in Calgary, Alberta; they introduced the indigenous peoples of Barbados, Belize, and St. Lucia to the Faith while pioneering there; and he was honored by the Blackfoot, Peigan, Blood, and Morely tribes in Alberta for his honesty and integrity. A geologist with a doctorate in the field, Irwin worked on Indian reserves in Canada ensuring that fair market value was paid for leases on natural resources.
Andres Jachakollo
In November 1994. Born 10 November 1921 in Villakolo, Oruro, Bolivia, he accepted the Faith at the age of 35. He was the country’s first indigenous Bahá’í, and he Opened many indigenous communities. He attended and spoke at the first Bahá’í World Congress in London in 1963. He was elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of Bolivia in 1961 and in 1972 was appointed to the Auxiliary Board, a service he performed to an advanced age.
Viva Elisa Lismore
On 29 November 1994 in France. Born Viva Elisa Carlstein in Villarica, Paraguay, on 23 May 1901, she served the Bahá’í Faith extensively in Cuba, Canada, Europe, and South America. After enrolling in the community in 1946, she began a life of service that included membership on the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Central America and the National Spiritual Assembly of Cuba, and teaching in Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Germany, Sweden, England, Bermuda, and throughout Canada. An interior decorator and furniture designer, she raised four children with her husband, Maj or Francis Lismore.
Louisito Walter L. Maddela Jr. On 8 October 1994 in Russia. Walter Maddela was born into a Bahá’í fam 314
OBITUARIE S
ily 0n 9 June 1952 in Solano, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines. He served on numerous national Bahá’í committees and was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly in 1974, the same year he became a pioneer among the Mangyan Hanunuo Tribe of Mindoro Occidental and opened the first Bahá’í tutorial school in the Philippines. He pioneered to Kiribati in 1979 and traveled to teach the Bahá’í Faith in Fiji, Samoa, Nauru, and the Solomon Islands. In 1992 he pioneered to Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, where he served until his death.
Guy Martail '
On 3 August 1994 in Martinique. Born in December 1927 in Martinique, he became the first Bahá’í Of the French Antilles when he accepted the Faith in French Guiana in 1955. He served on the Spiritual Assembly of the French Antilles, the Teaching Committee of Martinique, and the first National Spiritual Assembly of Martinique, formed in 1984. He was a renowned portrait photographer and cabinetmaker, and he and his Wife, Constance, raised four children.
Louella McKay
On 15 April 1995 in the United States. Louella McKay was born in Portland, Oregon, USA, in October 1918 and became a Bahá’í at the age of 25. Named a Knight of Baha’u’llah for pioneering to Spanish Morocco in 1953, she stayed in that country until 1959, apart from five months spent in Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea). Back in the US, she established the first certified school of cosmetology for inmates at the Detroit House of Corrections.
Muriel Auble Miessler
On 18 October 1994 in Brazil. Muriel Miessler was born 6 November 1901 in Forrest, Indiana, USA, and joined
the Bahá’í Faith not long before her marriage in 1943. She and her husband, Edmund, left the United States in 1946 to help establish a Bahá’í community in Brazil, a country she then served for nearly half a century. She was elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of Brazil in 1961 and continued to serve on that body for more than two decades. She recorded the services of the first pioneers to the area in the book Pioneering in Brazil.
Marthe Molitor
In 1995 in Belgium. Marthe Molitor was a painter and journalist who received the Paris “Arts-Sciences-Literature” gold medal and an award from the Academia Leonardo da Vinci in Rome. She discovered the Bahá’í Faith in 1947 during a trip to Belgium from her home in Rwanda. Upon her return, she began teaching the Faith and helped form the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Brazzaville, in the Congo. She also taught in Zaire and later in Belgium, where she worked for the newspaper L’Afrique et le monde and eventually settled permanently following the death of her husband, George.
Aqd M uhammad—deiq Munjazeb
On 14 August 1994 in Uzbekistan. Born in 1902 in Mashhad, Persia (now Iran), Aqa Muhammad-Sadiq Munjazeb embraced the Bahá’í Faith in 1925. In 1929 he pioneered t0 Samarkand, in the Soviet Union. Two terms of imprisonment, for a total of twelve years, in Siberia did not deter this believer from his devotion to the Faith. He traveled to teach the Faith in Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, and remained living in Uzbekistan until his death. He and his wife, Masiha Nekbat, raised six children.
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TH_E Bahá’í WORLD
H orace Mozart Newton
In March 1995 in Barbados. He was the first Barbadian Bahá’í, born in Barbados 14 December 1923 and declaring his faith in 1963. He served on the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Christ Church and continued to be elected for approximately 20 years. He also served as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Barbados and the Windward Islands for one year.
Sarah Martin Pereira
On 5 April 1995 in the United States. Raised in Ohio in one of the earliest Bahá’í families of African American background, Dr. Sarah Martin Pereira rendered outstanding Bahá’í services over six decades, including homefront and international pioneering and membership on the first Auxiliary Board of the Western Hemisphere (1954—1964), the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States (19601973), and the Continental Board of Counsellors in the Americas (19731985). A professor of romance languages, she held teaching positions at Shaw University, West Virginia State University, Tennessee A and I University, District of Columbia Teachers College, and the University of the District of Columbia. She also held administrative positions at a number of these universities and published in a variety of professional journals.
Gilbert Robert
On 11 April 1995 in Réunion. Gilbert Robert was born 12 March 1922 in Hell-Bourg, Reunion, and in 1953 he became the first person to accept the Bahá’í Faith in Madagascar. His record of service includes membership on Auxiliary Boards in Madagascar and France, the National Spiritual Assembly of France, and the Continental Board of Counsellors in Africa. He was a doctor of naturopathy and a
writer, and he and his wife, Daisy, raised five children.
Irene F rances Williams
On 14 July 1994 in Fiji. Born 3 December 1920 in Australia, she spent 40 years of her life in Fiji. Her distinguished contributions to the Bahá’í Faith, following her enrollment in 1948, include service as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Fiji, membership on the Auxiliary Board and assistance with the establishment and operation of the Fijian Bahá’í Publishing Trust. She worked as an accountant for the Fiji Broadcasting Commission for 22 years.
Carole Woodard
On 5 November 1994 in Venezuela. She and her husband, Weldon, pioneered from the United States to Venezuela, where they remained for 28 years, raising five children. Despite life-long health problems, she served as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly for many years and undertook numerous teaching trips which led to the establishment of Local Spiritual Assemblies. She was trained as a nurse and then became a doctor, working in a clinic for the poor until her death at the age of 55.
Abdu’l Rahman Zarqani
On 25 September 1994 in the Seychelles. Born 16 October 1923 in India, he accepted the Bahá’í Faith in 1945. He served as secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of India from 1952 to 1954, when he resigned to pioneer with his wife, Munira, to the Seychelles. He was named a Knight of Baha’u’llah for fulfilling this goal of the Ten Year Plan. Mr. Zarqani spent the rest of his life in the Seychelles, rearing six children and serving on both the first Local Spiritual Assembly and first National Spiritual Assembly of the country.
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