In Memoriam 1992-1997/Robert E. “Pat” Moul

ROBERT E. “PAT” MOUL

1924—1996

Robert E. “Pat” Moul, a longtime Bahá’í and pioneer, passed away on April 4, 1996, at his home in Boulder City, Nevada, after a long illness.

Pat, who got his nickname from his St. Patrick’s Day birthday, was born to Bahá’í parents on March 17, 1924, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He majored in business psychology at the University of Wisconsin and joined the US Navy as an officer after graduation. He had achieved the rank of lieutenant junior grade and was aboard ship, on his way to his first potential combat experience in the final assault on Japan, when the war ended.

After the war he moved to Chicago to work, and although he had never signed a Bahá’í declaration card, he served on the National Youth Committee. His parents and older Bahá’í friends soon remedied the situation by targeting him for a fireside meeting, to which they also invited a Bahá’í woman nearer his age and presumed interests. The plan worked. He joined the Faith, and on October 26, 1952, he married the young woman, Georgine Arnold.

Pat and Georgine determined to make their lives a service to the Faith, and by their first anniversary they were on a ship heading for a pioneer post in Alaska, responding to the Guardian’s call to the Ten Year Crusade. They were always selfsupporting and moved to a new post only

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Robert E "Pat” Maul

after they had replaced themselves and formed a Local Spiritual Assembly. The Assemblies they served included Anchorage in 1953; the virgin goal city of Ketchikan in 1954, where their daughter Vicki was born; and the virgin goal city of Douglas in 1957, where Doug and Larry joined the family. In that year Pat was elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Alaska, and he served it until their departure seventeen years later.

In 1970 the Mouls became the first pioneers to fill a foreign goal for the National Spiritual Assembly of Hawaii, relocating their entire family to American Samoa, where they ran a print shop and stationery store. All the members of the Moul family participated in its operation.

In Samoa Pat served on the National Spiritual Assembly and also on the Local Spiritual Assembly of the village of Aua. They remained in Samoa for four years; then Pat’s ill health forced them to sell the print shop and move to Guam. In Guam Pat and Georgine helped form the first Local Spiritual Assembly onona, and they

THE BAHA’I’ WORLD

served the community by giving firesides and deepenings.

In 1978 Pat, Georgine, and Larry Nicki and Doug were on their own by then) moved to Hawaii, where Pat continued to give firesides and where he and Georgine served on the Honolulu Assembly. They were members of the Hawaii Bahá’í history calendar staff until Georgine’s illness prompted their resignations in 1985. After Georgine’s passing in 1986, Pat was again elected to the Honolulu Assembly. He was a financial advisor to the Assembly and also served as the Honolulu community librarian.

In the summer of 1994, after his plan to pioneer to the Caribbean was curtailed by ill health, he moved to Boulder City, Nevada, where he was immediately elected chairman of the Assembly. He continued to serve in that capacity until his passing. The night before he passed away, Pat was teaching the Faith to his hospice nurse.

His body was interred privately in a walnut casket made without nails, and on Easter Sunday a small service for family and friends was held in a park near his home. It included the reading of the following message from the Department of the Secretariat dated April 7, 1996:

With deep sadness the Universal House of Justice read of the recent death, at Boulder City, Nevada, of Mr. Robert “Pat" Moul, warmly remembered for his many years of devoted Bahá’í service in various localities, including Alaska, Samoa, Guam and Hawaii. Be assured of its fervent prayers in the Holy Shrines for the progress of his soul in the

Abhá Kingdom. Pat is survived by his daughter Vicki

Peterson, sons Doug and Larry, and five grandchildren. Lynne Ellen Hollinger and Larry Maul