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IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997
DOROTHY CAMPBELL ROUGEOU 1909—1994
0 speak of the spirit that animated Dorothy Campbell, one might say that she was devoted to a divine ideal whose broad, universal dimensions and perfection she knew could come only from God. This ideal gave her vision of the divinely ordained destiny for mankind. It was vast and embraced the people of all national, religious, racial, and social backgrounds as members of one great human family, one universal brotherhood, living in peace, harmony, unity, understanding, and spirituality. This is the heart and core of the Christ—promised Kingdom of God on earth, a new world spiritual civilization, revealed by God in this new global age. In light of prophecies in the Scriptures of all the great religions of the world, Dorothy recognized God’s most recent Messenger, Baha’u’llah, the prophet—founder Of the Bahá’í Faith, as the promised Manifestation of God. She declared her faith in 1942 while living in Jackson, Mississippi. New horizons opened to her mind, a new and high flight propelled her spirit, and a new perspective of the purpose of life was a constant inspiration for her soul. Dorothy spoke of this transcendent message of God to many people in her eagerness to share with others this new measure ofdivine light that had come to the human race and whose illumination is destined to penetrate all corners of the earth. Dorothy wanted to be a part of this divine drama—a drama that began for her when she started her pioneering career in 1950, traveling to Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Peru, and Bolivia. In December of1950 she settled in Sucre, Bolivia, and in the new year she was appointed secretary of the Bahá’í Publishing Committee for Latin America by the recently established first National
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Domt/Jy Campbell Rougeou
Spiritual Assembly of South America. In 1952 she was one of three Bahá’í delegates to the United Nations Regional Conference of Non—Governmental Organizations held in La Paz, Bolivia. The following year, she was elected to the National Assembly and transferred to Lima, Peru, to serve as its secretary. In 1961 the republics of Central America elected their own National Assemblies, and Dorothy chose to go to Ecuador. She was elected to the National Assembly there and served as its secretary. With other members of that Assembly, she traveled to the Holy Land as an elector of the first Universal House of Justice in 1963. Ten years later Dorothy married and returned to the United States.
Dorothy met and became friends with James Rougeou when they were students at Louisiana College in Pineville, Louisiana. Dorothy graduated in 1928, two years before James, and their paths separated. Forty years passed. Dorothy became a high school Spanish teacher and a Bahá’í pioneer. In Quito, Ecuador, she was the principal of
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108 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
the Cotopaxi Academy. James had become a principal of an elementary school, a supervisor of education, and a high school coach. Both had married, and with time both were single again. James began to search for Dorothy and learned that she was in Ecuador. He contacted her, and they renewed their friendship, and a short time later they were wed. They shared a very happy life together for twenty years. Knight of Baha’u’llah Gayle Woolson
remembers:
One of the treasures of my pioneering years in Latin America . . . the special friendship I enjoyed with
was
Dorothy for fifteen years when we were closely associated in our Bahá’í activities in South America. That was from 1953 when she became a member of the Regional National Spiritual Assembly of South America to 1968 when I was transferred in my position with the United States government from Ecuador to El Salvador. However, after that we kept in touch. It was a friendship of the heart, the mind, and the soul.
Dorothy had endearing qualities that won her many friends. She was outgoing and caring. Her personality had charm, and she was an interesting conversationalist. She was an avid reader and student of the Bahá’í writings as well as literature in other fields, but she never reflected a sense of superiority. Whenever she would convey knowledge to others, it was always with a spirit of sharing. The fact that she served for twenty years as secretary of Bahá’í National Spiritual Assemblies attests to her ability, efficiency, and strength ofcharacter. In the midst of the load of Dorothy’s national secretarial work, she would periodically
visit other localities to help with the teaching work of developing Bahá’í groups and communities. She would give time to visiting individuals who wished to discuss the Bahá’í teachings with her. Her seriousness was combined with a delightful sense of humor.
Dorothy passed away on January 12, 1994, in Franklin, Louisiana. James explained that she had a heart condition and that when complications set in, she was hospitalized. She then developed pneumonia that took her earthly life—a life that had begun when she was born to Daisy and Oliver Morton on August 9, 1909, in Monroe, Louisiana.
Adapted in part from a memoir by Gayle Wolson
