In Memoriam 1992-1997/Elizabeth Schelleng Kappus

ELIZABETH SCHELLENG KAPPUS

1921—1995

The sun will set, the shadows fall,

But the stars will shine, a new day dawn,

So do not pity me, envy me,

For I still know the Love

For which there is no end in parting.

Elizabeth Kappus

lizabeth “Betty” Schelleng was born on September 21, 1921, in Fulton, New York. The Schellengs lived in nearby Hannibal for about four years before her father, Clarence, took a job teaching industrial arts at Oneonta high school. Her mother, Eleanor, taught grade school. After high school Betty went to Geneseo State College and studied library science. Then she moved to Lackawanna, a city near Buffalo, New York, and served as a children’s librarian. She met her husband, Frederick Kappus, at a YWCA dance in Buffalo.

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Elizaétt/a Schel/mg Kappm

As they got to know each other, he taught her about the Bahá’í Faith, and in a short time she said, “I want to become a Bahá’í." She was one of those pure—hearted people who immediately believe in the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. After becoming a Bahá’í, she began to teach others.

Fred and Betty were married on June 16, 1948, under the auspices of the Hamburg Bahá’ís. 'Ihey settled down on a fruit farm in Newfane, New York, and had four children.

In 1958 they sold the farm and answered the call of the Guardian for pioneers to go to South America. It was a long journey from New York to Arequipa, Peru, with their children. Nancy was then ten years old; Gail, eight; Tom, four; and Janet just eighteen months. Betty loved this white city with its white buildings of lava rock and the mountain El Misti above it. Eve Nicklin, an American pioneer, came to live with them, and their house became the

Bahá’í Center. Many people came there to hear about the Bahá’í Faith.

After one and a half years they sold their belongings and answered a call for pioneers to go to Otavalo, Ecuador. There they helped form the first Bahá’í Spiritual Assembly and met Raul I’avon165 to help teach the rural Indian

who came “‘6 people living in the mountains.

Betty and Fred always welcomed the Indian and local people into their home. Raul brought many of the Indians who had come down from the mountains to go to the market to them. Betty served them and taught them the Faith. Some of the Hands of the Cause came to visit and to help with the teaching. A wonderful tribute was made to the Kappus family by the Hand of the Cause A. Q. Faizi in his book Meditations on #93 Eve of November 4th:

My heart leaps up when I think of that family who always have groups of Indians in their house. They talk to them, teach them, entertain them and share with them their own daily bread. In these great services father, mother

and four Children patticipate.‘(’7

Their children went to a local school. Later Betty began to teach them along with the other pioneer children, and the Kappus house turned into a school for nine Bahá’í children. (There was no school for girls beyond the fourth grade in Otavalo.) It was a busy time for Betty; she enjoyed this and was happy serving the Cause.

After five years of pioneering service (1958—63), they returned to the United States, bought another farm, and returned to teaching in the rural areas there.

They made many trips back to Ecuador to help with the teaching work. Betty saw

‘65 See "In Memoriam,” 77w Balm? W/arld, vol. XIX, pp. 616—19. ‘66 Indigenous people of the Americas.

‘67 iWedimtiom an the Eve of November 4th, p. 14.

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the beginning of Radio Bahá’í Ecuador and the expansion of the Faith in that country. She also attended the Continental Conference in 1970 in La Paz, Bolivia.

They later bought a van to travel to Central America during the winter, returning to the farm in the spring. Fred and Betty visited the Bahá’ís in Nicaragua, Uruguay, and Mexico. The two older girls, Nancy and Gail, went to college and spent the summer teaching the Mayan Indians in the Yucatan Peninsula.

Back in New York Betty served on many local support groups, and she Was always willing to help on Bahá’í projects and to support the Bahá’ís in western New York State. She also volunteered regularly at the Louhelen Bahá’í School to help catalog the library. She died on December 16, 1995, while visiting the Dominican Republic. On the 19th the Department of the Secretariat conveyed the loving condolences of the House of Justice:

The Universal House of Justice was . of the recent passing of Mrs. Elizabeth

deeply saddened to learn . .

Kappus.

Dear Betty will be long remembered for the loving dedication with which she and her Family served the Faith for many years, in numerous countries, and will be sorely missed by the friends whose hearts she touched in countless ways.

Be assured of the prayers of the House of Justice in the Holy Shrines for the progress of Betty’s soul in the Abhá Kingdom, and that her husband, Fred, and her children and their families may be solaced, during this trying time, through the divine grace of the Blessed Beauty.

Fred Kappu:

THE BAHA’I’ WORLD