In Memoriam 1992-1997/Barbara Anne Inahara
| In Memoriam 1992-1997 Barbara Anne Inahara |
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BARBARA ANNE INAHARA 1946-1996[edit]
Barbara Anne Inahara began her earthly life in Chicago, Illinois, on December 26, 1946. Her parents, Betty and Ted Inahara, later provided her with a brother, Dale, and a sister, Rhonda.
"Bobbie," as she was affectionately called, became a Bahá’í at the age of twenty-one. She traveled extensively, learned French, and utilized her bilingual abilities in a number of jobs, including seven years at the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Labour Office of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. She was a pioneer there as well as in France, Cameroon, and Italy.
She moved back to the United States sometime in the late 1980s, settling in Texas.
She served on the Local Assemblies of Houston and Bellaire and in the homefront pioneer community of West University. For five years she served on the District Teaching Committee of East Texas #2. The last great teaching effort Bobbie was engaged in was the Amatu’l-Bahá Teaching Crusade in the greater Houston area. She gave up her car to that project. It was used to transport teachers to The Woodlands. Bobbie often cooked for the teachers in Sugar Land. She made sure they were well cared for and fed, and she cleaned up afterward. If you were foolish enough to ask her why she went to so much trouble, she would want to know why you were not doing the same. Her belief in the statements of the Universal House of Justice, the Guardian, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the process of entry by troops was unshakable. What the rest of us are learning now, she was already living.
Those who knew her knew of her commitment to community service. As well as the Bahá’í institutions and committees that
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were the beneficiaries of her contributions, the Communities for Youth (CFY) program was the recipient of her time and efforts. For more than three years she supported the work of the CFY by enrolling "youth at risk, providing transportation, and when needed, offering food to ensure that the youth would remain in the program. She mentored as many as three youth at a time and began to serve on the board of directors in December of 1995.
Bobbie was also interested in Native Americans and served the Intertribal Council of Houston. She was on its telephone committee and assisted with cooking and raffles at the Native American Indian powwows at Traders' Village. She also assisted with its newsletters, annual children's Christmas parties, and annual food and blanket drives for the benefit of the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas.
She was attracted to the Mastery of Learning program—a commercial venture endeavoring to help people rediscover the joy of learning. She served as an assistant at weekend workshops for over ten years.
Bobbie worked with SEARCH—a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving the homeless and was on its board of directors.
In 1989 she was one of the cofounders of the Center for the Healing of Racism. The center promotes the recognition of the oneness of humanity—a oneness that racism violates. As well as her volunteer activities, she held down a full-time job.
Bobbie was involved in a car accident in Artesia, New Mexico, on her way home from a powwow. She was taken to the University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, where she passed away July 17, 1996. She was fifty years old, a member of the Bellaire Spiritual Assembly at the time.
A friend described her: "This was a person who believed in service and lived it, believed in justice and fought for it, demanded that integrity be the guiding principle of all personal interactions, and she dealt with everyone in the same way with love, generosity, and frankness."
Over two hundred people attended her memorial service, representing many social strata and cultural backgrounds; each person had been touched by Bobbie's service. It was a testimony to how one person's love and service can become a magnet through which hearts and lives are transformed in a community.
Adapted from articles by Andrenea M. King and Jackie Newberry