Bahá’í World/Volume 24/Obituaries

←Previous

The Bahá’í World Volume 24

Next→

Proofread once

[Page 309]

Rodney Lynn Belcher

This is worship: to serve mankind and to minister to the needs of the people. Service is prayer. A physician ministering to the sick, gently, tenderly, free from prejudice and believing in the solidarity of the human race, he is giving praise. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Rodney Lynn Belcher, a member of the Ugandan Bahá’í community, was shot and killed on 11 March 1996 by vehicle hijackers in the parking lot of Mulago Hospital in Kampala. He was 64 years old.

Born in the United States on 2 November 1931, Rodney Belcher married Dawn Dayton in 1953 and became a Bahá’í in 1957. Together the Belchers raised two sons.

At the time of his passing, Dr. Belcher was employed by Health Volunteers Overseas, an organization which is based in Washington, D.C. and implements an orthopedics project in Uganda funded by USAID. He had spent many years in East Africa both teaching and practicing orthopedic surgery, focusing initially on victims of war and later also treating the effects of polio and other diseases.

Dr. Belcher first went to Uganda in the early 1980s as a Fulbright lecturer in Makerere. He trained [Page 310]many of Uganda's physicians in orthopedics, and he established the master of medicine program in orthopedic surgery at Mulago Hospital. He collaborated with the British Red Cross to set up an orthopedic workshop at Mulago Hospital which makes artificial limbs, wheelchairs, and braces for amputees, victims of polio, and others. He also established the orthopedics program operating at Muhimbili Hospital in Tanzania. He served as a Fulbright lecturer and a professor at the University of Nairobi's medical school, and taught orthopedics at the medical school at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. for many years.

The Belcher family contributed significantly to the Ugandan Bahá’í community. One Bahá’í noted, "With tremendous grace and self-effacement, they made their resources of time, money, and the invaluable vehicle, with Dawn as driver, available for the work of the Faith. Their home was open to the many visitors who relied on the Belchers for international telephone calls, faxes, hot water, and food...."

The funeral took place on 12 March 1996, beginning with a memorial program at the Bahá’í Temple in Kampala. The service then moved to the burial site, where the Bahá’í prayer for the dead was recited. The mourners, numbering over 2,000, filed past the casket; many of them were in wheelchairs, on crutches, or using canes or simple walking sticks Dr. Belcher had assisted them to obtain. Virtually the entire staff of the U.S. Embassy and of USAID were there, as well as many colleagues from Mulago Hospital and Mulago University.

The news media picked up the story of Dr. Belcher's murder and a number of accounts were published in various newspapers, including the New Vision in Uganda and the Washington Post and the Washington Times in the United States.

During the days following Dr. Belcher's passing, the Belcher family, and in particular Dr. Belcher's widow, Dawn, was deluged by letters and messages of condolence from people of eminence in Africa, friends, individuals Dr. Belcher had assisted, and health service organizations with which he had collaborated. Many of these messages bore eloquent witness to Dr. Belcher's numerous acts of kindness and sacrifice as he strove to serve the people of Uganda. The King of Buganda, His Majesty, Ssabasajja Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi II stated, "It is with a sense of great personal loss that I mourn the sudden departure of a man who has been so dear and useful to our nation."

United States Senator Patrick Leahy praised Dr. Belcher in the Senate, declaring, as published in the Congressional Record, "It [Page 311]

OBITUARIES

would be hard to conceive of a more senseless, horrible crime. Rod Belcher was a wonderfully generous human being who de- voted his professional life to improving the lives of others.... At his funeral, Dr. Belcher was honored by the Ugandan Vice President, the Minister of Health, the director of the hospital, the dean of the medical school, the American Ambassador, the British High Commissioner, and many others. The orthopedic clinic that he worked so hard to establish was formally named after him. The streets were lined with people who knew him per- sonally or had heard of the Am- erican doctor who had done so much for the Ugandan people."

The comments of Ugandan Vice President, Dr. Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, who had studied sur- gery under Dr. Belcher when she was a medical student, included her warm memories of how he had encouraged her in her wish to specialize in surgery, even though in that time and place it was a medical speciality not as welcoming to women as others.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States wrote to Mrs. Belcher, "His universal kindness to all levels of society and rectitude of conduct exem- plified his adherence to the principles of our Faith and made him widely respected as a 'true physician. Upon receiving the news of Dr. Belcher's passing, the Universal House of Justice sent the following message to the National Spiritual Assembly of Uganda:

DEEPLY GRIEVED BRUTAL MURDER DEDICATED OUT- STANDING PIONEER RODNEY BELCHER WHOSE INDEFATIGA- BLE SERVICES WILL ALWAYS BE LOVINGLY REMEMBERED. SELFLESSLY, ENERGETI- CALLY AND COURAGEOUSLY, TOGETHER WITH HIS DISTIN- GUISHED WIFE, HE LABORED AMONG HIS COMPATRIOTS IN THE UNITED STATES AND WITH EVEN GREATER DISTINCTION SINCE 1970 IN TANZANIA, KENYA AND UGANDA, SERVING THE POPULATION THROUGH HIS MEDICAL PROFESSION AND PROMOTING INTERESTS BELOVED FAITH IN THESE COUNTRIES. PRAYING HOLY SHRINES FOR PROGRESS HIS LUMINOUS SOUL ETERNAL KINGDOM, AND FOR COMFORT AND SOLACE HIS DEAR WIFE AND MEMBERS FAMILY. ADVISE HOLD MEMORIAL MEETING HIS HONOR IN HOUSE OF WORSHIP. ASK TANZANIAN KENYAN NA- TIONAL ASSEMBLIES HOLD SIMILAR GATHERINGS IN HIS NAME.

Suhayl Ala’i

On 14 August 1995 in Western Samoa. Born 5 January 1927 into a Bahá’í family in Teheran, Iran, Suhayl Ala’i immigrated to New [Page 312]Zealand in 1950 and graduated with a degree in agriculture from Massey University. He married Lilian Wyss in 1954, joined her in Western Samoa, and two of their children were born there. In 1959, Mr. and Mrs. Ala’i moved to American Samoa, where their youngest child was born. Mr. Ala’i was appointed to the first Continental Board of Counsellors in Australasia in 1968 and served on that institution until 1990. He also served as a member of the first National Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific and of the National Assembly of Samoa. His consulting business, Pacific Services, developed over time into Pacific Products and Pacific Marketing.

Samiheh Banání

On 8 May 1995 in Canada. Born on 8 December 1907 in Teheran, Iran, in 1925 she married Músá Banání, who was later appointed a Hand of the Cause, and bore six children. In Iran, Mrs. Banání was one of the early members of the National Committee for the Advancement of Women. At the instruction of Shoghi Effendi, the Banání family transferred its residence to Dezashoub, Iran, from 1943 to 1945, in order to teach the Bahá’í Faith. They pioneered to Uganda in 1951, where Hand of the Cause of God Banání passed away in 1971. From 1974 to 1976, Mrs. Banání pioneered in the Canary Islands. She then moved to Canada, serving as a member of the Local Assembly of Toronto. She continued to serve in that country until her death.

Gail Avery Davis

On 7 November 1995 in Alaska. Born on 29 September 1903 in the United States, Gail Avery learned about the Bahá’í Faith in her forties and returned to school for nurse's training so that she could better serve the Cause she had embraced. In 1953 she left her home in Montana to pioneer to Baranof Island in Alaska, for which she was named a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh. She lived on Baronof, in Sitka, for some 40 years. She was adopted as a Tlingit and married Albert Davis, the head of the Coho Clan of Tlingits for Sitka.

Sabri Elias

On 22 October 1995 in Egypt. Mr. Elias embraced the Bahá’í Faith at the age of 14 in Egypt after learning about it from his brother and uncle. In the 1930s, he became the first Bahá’í to pioneer to Ethiopia, where he helped form the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Addis Ababa and arrange for the translation of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era into Amharic. After returning to Egypt, he settled again in Ethiopia with his wife Fahíma and two children, and in 1954 they pioneered to French Somaliland (now Djibouti); for this service Mr. and Mrs. Elias were named Knights of Bahá’u’lláh. In the mid-1960s he pioneered again, to Libya. He eventually settled in Egypt, traveling to countries of [Page 313]

OBITUARIES

the Middle East in order to visit and encourage fellow Bahá’ís.

Ruth Eyford

On 10 January 1996 in Canada. Ruth Monk was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, on 12 June 1930, and studied nursing and psychiatric nursing. She became a Bahá’í in Montreal in 1956 and married Glen Eyford in 1957; together they raised two children. The Eyfords served the Bahá’í communities in Iceland, India, and various locations in Canada and settled finally in St. Albert, Alberta, in 1970. Mrs. Eyford traveled extensively throughout Canada, teaching others about the Bahá’í Faith and working to assist and strengthen various Bahá’í communities. She served as an Auxiliary Board member and as chairman of the National Assembly of Canada. She was also a member at different times of a number of Local Assemblies and national and local committees. Mrs. Eyford's service to the community at large, including her work as a nurse counselor with the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, was recognized by the mayor of St. Albert and a member of the Legislative Assembly in November 1995.

William R. Foster

On 18 May 1995 in Hawaii. William Foster, born in the United States on 6 June 1912, became a Bahá’í in the early 1930s. He was the first African-American Bahá’í to respond to the call for pioneers to Africa, moving first to Liberia in 1951, to Morocco in 1954, and then back to Liberia in 1962. In 1953 he spent 45 days at the World Centre, assisting the Guardian with the development of Bahá’í properties. He later served on a number of national committees and Local Spiritual Assemblies in the United States, and for nearly twelve years he was a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands.

Eileen Dewar Hill

On 23 October 1995 in Guyana. Born in 1914, she married James Hill in 1939, learned about the Bahá’í Faith from her sister and became a Bahá’í in 1956. She was a regular participant in the activities of the Guyanese Bahá’í community and served on the first Regional Assembly of the Guianas, which formed in 1970, and on the National Assembly of Guyana when it came into being in 1976. She took pains to share the Bahá’í Faith with others in her native country, and in 1983 she became Guyana's first international pioneer by settling in Grenada for 11 years, where she was elected to the first National Assembly in 1984, serving as its treasurer. Mrs. Hill was elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly of Georgetown, Guyana, every year for some 25 years, and she also served on that of Springs/Woodlands, Grenada for about nine years. In Grenada she was on various national committees, and she was also the librarian for [Page 314]many of the years she spent in that country. Mrs. Hill served the Society for the Blind from 1958 until 1980. She had one son.

Marion Hofman

On 5 December 1995 in the United Kingdom. Born on 17 May 1910 in Visalia, California, in the United States, Marion Holley joined the Bahá’í community in the early 1930s. She attended both Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as a budget analyst for the city of San Francisco in the 1940s. She was appointed to the National Teaching Committee of the United States during the first Seven Year Plan, and after marrying David Hofman in 1945 she served on the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles (1945-1963), its National Teaching Committee (1945-50), and the first Auxiliary Board of Europe, appointed in 1954. From 1963 to 1988 she served at the Bahá’í World Centre, where her husband was a member of the Universal House of Justice. She continued to work from the Holy Land for some twelve years as manager of George Ronald Publisher in the United Kingdom. The Hofmans had two children.

Mary McCulloch

On 7 January 1996 in Canada. Mary Zabolotny was born on 9 November 1918 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Ukrainian immigrants. She studied at both the University of Manitoba and the Winnipeg School of Art and worked as a commercial artist. After she embraced the Bahá’í Faith in 1951, she pioneered in Canada itself, first to Saskatoon, in Saskatchewan, and then to several other communities, to help form Local Spiritual Assemblies. She was designated a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh by Shoghi Effendi for her service in fulfilling the extremely difficult pioneering goal of Anticosti Island, in 1956. Mary married Ken McCulloch in 1958, and together they moved to Baker Lake, in the Northwest Territories; there they shared the Bahá’í Faith with the first Inuit Bahá’í in Canada. They also established the Baker Lake Bahá’í House and arranged for Bahá’í literature to be translated into Inuktitut. In her later years, Mrs. McCulloch was involved with translating Bahá’í literature into Ukrainian. The McCullochs had one daughter.

James Moncho

On 5 September 1995 in Botswana. James Moncho was born on 30 July 1907 in Ganyesa, South Africa; in 1938 he married Stella Motshedi. He became a Bahá’í in 1955 and in 1957 he was elected to the first Local Assembly of Mafeking, in South Africa. That same year the Monchos moved to Botswana and thus became the first Bahá’is of that country. Mr. Moncho is remembered for his translations of the Bahá’í sacred writings into Setswana; in 1982 he was among the first Bahá’ís to travel to Tsabong, in the Kalahari Desert, to share with others [Page 315]

OBITUARIES

the message of Bahá’u’lláh. He worked as a school inspector and founded many schools in the Tsabong region. He also began feeding programs in schools in places where hunger kept children from attending and in poor and remote areas. Mr. and Mrs. Moncho had four children.

Juana Ortuño López On 1 August 1995 in Spain. One of the founding members of the Iberian Bahá’í community, she accepted the Faith in 1947. She was elected the chairperson of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Madrid, and then left Spain, where she had been born in 1905 in Cieza, Murcia, to pioneer in Cuba. There she served on a number of Local Assemblies at different times and was elected a member of the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Greater Antilles and then later of the first National Spiritual Assembly of Cuba. During the years after her return to Spain in 1963 she was elected to various Local Spiritual Assemblies over the years. Her contributions to the Faith also include a translation of the Seven Valleys from French into Spanish in 1953.

Nurredin Soraya On 15 October 1995 in Indonesia. Born on 6 March 1920 in Isfahan, Iran, Nurredin Soraya became a Bahá’í in 1945. He obtained his degree as a medical doctor from the University of Teheran in 1949 and moved to Baluchistan, in 1950, in order to serve the Bahá’í Faith, and then again to Neyshabur in 1952. In 1953 he married Bahereh Sharifi. They pioneered to Indonesia in 1954, where he served for the remaining 41 years of his life, offering his medical skills to the Indonesian people through his position as an Indonesian civil servant within the Department of Health—forgoing an expatriate work contract to take a position with very little financial remuneration. He worked in public hospitals in all the towns and villages in which they resided, operating a private practice in the evenings in order to support his wife and their six children. In recognition of these medical services, Dr. Soraya received a commendation from the government of Indonesia. His various professional postings took him and his family to five different localities within the first three years of their life in Indonesia; in 1957 they settled in Bojonegoro, East Java, where he lived until his death. Dr. Soraya served on the Local Assembly of Jakarta, and his service for a period as a member of the Auxiliary Board took him to numerous Bahá’í communities within Indonesia, as well as a great many countries elsewhere in Asia. Dr. Soraya assisted with the translation of Bahá’í writings into Indonesian from Arabic and Persian.

Habib Taherzadeh On 18 August 1995 in Brazil. Born to a Bahá’í family of Yazd, Iran, on 4 January 1908, Habib [Page 316]Taherzadeh attained the presence of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the early age of five, upon his family’s visit to the Holy Land in 1913. He mar- ried Farrokhlegha Missaghieh in 1941, and they had two children. From 1950 to 1955, Mr. Taher- zadeh served as a member of the translation committee of the National Assembly of Iran. From 1953 to 1954, he and his family pioneered to Turkey, and then in 1955 they were the first Iranian Bahá’ís to move to Brazil. From 1955 to 1957, Mr. Taherzadeh served as a member of the Local Assembly of Rio de Janeiro, and in 1957 he was elected to the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Curitiba, to which he was re- elected for many years. In 1961, he became a member of the first National Spiritual Assembly of Brazil. Mr. Taherzadeh was a noted translator, a scholar, and an Esperantist. He worked in the Research Department of the Uni- versal House of Justice from 1970 to 1977, during which time he translated the Tablets which comprise Selections from the Writings of the Báb and Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. He also authored at the request of the Universal House of Justice a glossary and a description of a translation methodology based on the trans- lations of Shoghi Effendi. He was a frequent traveler, visiting various places throughout the world to inspire and enrich the understanding of Bahá’ís and to share Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings with others.

Ama Dahan Talon

On 24 May 1995 in the Philip- pines. In 1971, Ama Dahan Talon accepted the Bahá’í Faith, and he became a pillar of the Bahá’í community within his native Mangyan tribe. Although he had no formal education, he consis- tently taught the Bahá’í Faith in the Mangyan areas, served as a member of a Local Spiritual Assembly and an assistant to an Auxiliary Board member, and constantly brought inspiration to his fellow Filipino Bahá’ís. Mr. Talon and his wife, Hunhon, had five children.

Leala Tasi

On 4 August 1995 in Samoa. One of the highest chiefs of his village, Leala Tasi became a member of the Bahá’í com- munity in 1968 and served it the rest of his life. He served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Samoa, as well as the Local Spiritual Assembly of Puleia. He was a marriage officer for the island of Savaii and offered his land for construction of its first Bahá’í center. He and his wife, Ta’amilo Leala, together raised eight children.