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JAMES HEGGIE
1915‘1992 Jim Heggie was born in Newarthill,
Scotland, on July 20, 1915, and migrated to Canada with his parents in 1921. Jim
fame: Haggie
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IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 11
started school in Toronto. The family moved from city to city before settling in 1932 in Eau Claire, Ontario, where Jim spent his time hunting, fishing, swimming, skiing, and doing a variety ofjobs. Relatives in Australia invited him to Visit them in Sydney in 1935; he accepted and stayed there several years.
In 1937 he was led, seemingly by chance, to the door oFa new world. In his own words he related his experience:
In a world not yet out of the Great Depression and very soon to enter a second great war and with an agnostic outlook, it now seems fortuitous that in 1937 I found myself spiritually bankrupt and open to many temptations in what I now recognize as an unconscious search for some sort of answer to the problems of life. I had actually attended a meeting or two of some weird nature, and was associated with a Christian Scientist, when in July I found myself in need of the service of an optometrist as I’d hurt my eyes through working conditions. Luckily for me Australia’s first believer was an optometrist and not a brain surgeon or a psychiatrist; and so by chance I called in to the George Street Shop of Alex Hale, to find Mr. Oswald Whitaker” who not only prescribed the necessary spectacles but also attracted me so that I’d always call on him to say “hello” and talk a little (though it meant waiting an hour or 50). After a few weeks I was invited to a youth meeting at Mr. Whitaker’s home where I first heard the word “Bahá’í”. The following weekend when I visited the Optician Rooms in
George Street I told Mr. Whitaker I was
9 See “In Memoriam," 77)? Bahzi't’ World, vol. IX, pp. 606—7.
not interested in religion; he said that it didn’t matter and that we’d talk of other things. From then on I visited his home twice a week and we’d talk of “science,” for he was wonderfully informative so that I soon came to realize that my skepticism in religious matters was due to the inadequate church doctrines.
Jim became a confirmed Bahá’í long before he met any members of the Sydney community, then numbering about fifteen. (Australia and New Zealand then counted fewer than a hundred active believers.) In 1938 he met Mother and Father Dunn.
Jim returned to the United States where he studied chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, and after graduating visited his family in Ontario. While in the United States he visited the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette and attended the 1940 National Convention. He was privileged to meet many of the outstanding believers, including Gertrude Struven who introduced him to the study of Islam that became for him a labor oflove persisting to the end of his life; in 1946 he produced a study index of the Qur’án.
In April 1941 he returned to Australia. Realizing that he would be drafted into the armed forces, he volunteered for noncombatant service and spent five years in the Medical Corps. As a volunteer he was given a Choice of units. One was being sent to Malaysia, so with his sights set on meeting the Guardian, he enlisted in the other, which was destined for the Middle East. While stationed in Palestine he applied for leave to Visit Haifa and received the inestimable privilege of meeting the Guardian and Amatu’l—Baha Rúḥíyyih Khánum. He was inspired by the interviews with Shoghi Effendi, and his dedication and commitment to the Faith were set on a solid foundation.
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12 THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
He Visited Haifa once more before being posted to Buna in New Guinea. He taught the Faith whenever possible, and a declaration resulted there in 1943. Jim wrote, “In fact it was my presence in New Guinea for two and a half years and that OFJim Chittleborough in Milne Bay that allowed the Guardian in God Passer By to refer to the opening up of these areas to the Faith.”
In 1947 he married Merle Brooks of Adelaide. In that same year Jim was elected to the National Assembly and became its secretary. The Heggies moved to Brisbane in 1948 to help establish a Local Spiritual Assembly there, it being a goal of the country’s Six Year Plan to achieve Assemblies in the remaining capital Cities. They moved again to establish and maintain Hunters Hill Local Spiritual Assembly. Jim served on the National Teaching Committee and on numerous other committees, and he was frequently a speaker at firesides and public meetings.
In the 19405 Jim learned braille and commenced producing Bahá’í books for the blind. He had a penetrating knowledge of the Bahá’í writings and in later years produced a number of concordances and indexes to assist in their study. They included An Index of Quamtz’om fiom the Sacred Writings and Ba/ad’z’ Reference: to fudaism, Christianity and Islam.
Soon after the launch of the Ten Year Crusade, Jim was reelected to the National Assembly and voted its secretary. In 1955 he received a letter from Shoghi Effendi asking the National Assembly to commence plans, in the strictest confidence, for the construction of a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Sydney. "Ihe Guardian had called it “The Mother Temple of the Antipodes, and indeed of the whole Pacific area.”
For nearly two years Jim and his fellow members of the National Assembly labored
on these plans in secret, as Shoghi Effendi did not want the community to be disappointed should they have to be postponed. Detailed investigations into the design and the costing of construction had to be undertaken before they were announced to the community in the Guardian’s 1957 convention message. Jim was closely involved in the construction work, and for three decades following the dedication of the Temple in 1961 both Jim and Merle devoted themselves to its support. For a decade and more Jim printed the programs for the Sunday services.
Jim pursued his profession of chiropractic for fifty—one years, following in the footsteps of his teacher, Oswald Whitaker. He was not especially ambitious to achieve material wealth, but he was a very supportive husband and father and constantly encouraged and deepened his family.
Jim passed to the Abhá Kingdom on August 31, 1992, in Sydney. Learning of his death the Universal House of Justice that day cabled the National Assembly of Australia:
DEEPLY DISTRESSED LEARN PASSING JAMES HEGGIE WHO RENDERED OUTSTANDING SERVICES CAUSE BAHA’U’LLAI—I IN ANTIPODES OVER FIVE DECADES. HIS DEVOTED ENDEAVOURS MANYYEARS MEMBER NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY AUSTRALIA INCLUDING LENGTHY PERIOD SECRETARY CONTRIBUTED ESTABLISHMENT SOUND ADMINISTRATIVE FOUNDATION NATIONAL COMMUNITY.
LOVINGLY RECALL HIS CONSTANT DEDICATION TEACHING CAUSE, HIS ENTHUSIASM STUDY WRITINGS FAITH, HIS SCHOLARLY WORKS VARIOUS ASPECTS TEACHINGS. KINDLY CONVEY MEMBERS
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IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 13
FAMILY LOVING SYMPATHY ASSURANCE PRAYERS PROGRESS HIS LUMINOUS SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.
Merle O. Heggie and 7716 National Spiritual Assemély Of the Bakti’z's ofAmtmlia
