In Memoriam 1992-1997/Gert van der Garde

In Memoriam 1992-1997 Gert van der Garde

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GERT VAN DER GARDE 1922-1994

Gert van der Garde passed away on June 12, 1994, at the age of seventy-two years in Culemborg, the Netherlands. The Universal House of Justice wrote to the National Spiritual Assembly of that country on June 16:

DISTRESSED NEWS PASSING GERT VAN DER GARDE. HIS DEVOTED SERVICES TO THE CAUSE OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH IN THE NETHERLANDS ARE WARMLY REMEMBERED. ASSURE PRAYERS HOLY SHRINES FOR PROGRESS HIS SOUL ALL WORLDS OF GOD AND FOR CONSOLATION MEMBERS HIS BEREAVED FAMILY.

Gert was a sincere and courageous man who strove for perfection. Coming from a very orthodox Protestant background that, as a young man, he could no longer endorse, he set out on an intensive quest. With a strong sense of deep personal need and sincerity, he investigated Judaism, Catholicism, and the beliefs and practices of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. With Zoroaster he found some clues, but it was not until January of 1961 that he found what he was looking for. That was when he and his wife, Mas, became followers of Bahá’u’lláh. Gert was like a torch and driven to do everything in his power to fulfill, as perfectly as possible, the goals that had been set.

The propagation of the Bahá’í Faith in the Netherlands had barely begun with the end of the Second World War. There was no national administration, and there were only two Local Spiritual Assemblies, one in Amsterdam, the other in The Hague.

Gert van der Garde

[Page 159]The lives of Gert and Mas, and those of a handful of fellow believers at that time, were closely associated with the development of the administrative institutions of the Faith.

The van der Garde family lived in Arnhem, one of the European goal towns of Shoghi Effendi’s Ten Year Crusade. From the time of its establishment, Gert served as a member of the Spiritual Assembly of Arnhem. For many years he served as chairman and stimulated the community through his personality and position. In those early years technical provisions at Bahá’í events were limited. It was Gert who drove through city and countryside with his audio equipment. He was never too tired to render his services at activities around the country from which he acquired much experience.

He turned his hobby into his profession and established his own recording studio. In the course of time he helped to make historic recordings at international conferences, such as at Palermo, Frankfurt, and Langenhain. He was an animated speaker, contributing his skills to newspaper interviews and radio broadcasts.

Gert was a member of the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Netherlands elected in 1962. A recording made by him of the first National Convention has been preserved. The next year he participated in the first International Convention in Haifa and the election of the Universal House of Justice. He also served for many years as a member of the Auxiliary Board, supported in this difficult and time-consuming work by his wife and two children. His was a close family deeply committed to family values.

After many years in Arnhem, Gert and Mas went to live in Culemborg to be close to their beloved daughter, Ineke, their son-in-law, and grandchildren. Two years before his passing his illness began to reveal itself. He was forced to consider undergoing critical surgeries, operations that eventually sapped him of all of his strength. In a family as close as theirs, the passing of a husband, father, and grandfather was a severe loss. Only after his ascension did the Dutch Bahá’í community learn the degree to which he had quietly helped and assisted so many others—people within whom the memory of Gert van der Garde will assuredly live on.

Mas van der Garde