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SALVATORE “TONY” PELLE 1917—1995
Salvatore “Tony” Pelle passed away in
Mesa, Arizona, on August 26, 1995, ten days shy of his seventy—eighth birthday. He was born September 5, 1917, in Brooklyn, New York.
Tony entered the Army Air Force during the Second World War and rose through the ranks. When the joint military command split into two services, Tony chose to enter the Air Force. He rose to the rank of colonel and was head of US Air Force public relations in Europe at the time of his retirement from active duty.
A long time futurist and philosopher, Tony became a member of the Bahá’í Faith in Alaska in 1947. He immediately drew up plans for an organized public information office to disperse accurate information about the new religion. He was attracted to the Bahá’í Faith, in large part, by its approach to humanity’s need for peace with justice.
He settled in Wilmette, Illinois, in 1967 near the Bahá’í National Center and remained there until 1972. It has been said that Tony “brought public information to a new level when he served in Wilmette, establishing one of the first Bahá’í ofices of public information." He headed the publicity campaign for the 1967 Bahá’í International Conference in Chicago and designed the first system whereby simultaneous Bahá’í conferences on each of the five continents were joined by a telephone conference call. This may have been the first time such a conference call was ever made. Intercontinental conference telephone exchanges were to become a feature of other Bahá’í conferences.
Tony designed media presentations for the dedication ceremonies of the Bahá’í Temple in Panama, the dedication of the
THE BAHA’I’ WORLD
Louis Gregory School in South Carolina, the first US National Bahá’í Youth Conference (Wilmette), and a memorable 1971 Bahá’í conference in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1985 he was invited by the Universal House of Justice to serve the committee charged with the dedication of the Lotus Temple—the Bahá’í House of Worship in New Delhi, India.
One of Tony’s legacies is the development, training, and coordination of an all—volunteer public information network of Bahá’í community members throughout the United States. His pattern has subsequently been followed by Bahá’í communities in other parts of the world.
After moving to Hawaii in 1977. Tony was made chairman of the local branch of the American Cancer Society, and he helped to bring about some of the state’s environmental antismoking legislation. He managed the first International Bahá’í Youth Conference held in Hawaii, was a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Hawaii, and was the “father” of the Bahá’í office of public information there. While in Hawaii Tony established the Agnes Alexander Award for service to humanity and helped to produce the television program “Dawn of a New Day.”
Active in the World Futurist Society as a consultant in the production of video documentaries, he was sensitive to the importance of delivering accurate information and to the power of the media.
After his wife, Charlotte, passed away, he moved to Chandler, Arizona, and married Marcia Swenson during the last year of his life.
After a brief hospital stay in August 1995, Tony passed away of complications from diabetes. His family and friends miss his keen sense of humor, his passion for peace and the unity of humankind, and his insightful way of seeing to the heart of
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IN MEMORIAM 1992—1997 241
problems. The Universal House of Justice cabled on August 28, 1995:
PROFOUNDLY GRIEVED LOSS DEVOTED, ENERGETIC. RESOURCEFUL SERVANT BLESSED BEAUTY SALVATORE PELLE. HIS LONG INVOLVEMENT DEVELOPMENT HOLY CAUSE THROUGH PARTICIPATION TEACHING AND ADMINISTRATIVE WORK ESPECIALLY DISTINGUISHED BY HIS ENDURING CONTRIBUTIONS EXTERNAL RELATIONS COMMUNITY THROUGH PUBLIC INFORMATION ACTIVITIES. HIS CREATIVE ENDEAVORS WHICH HE PURSUED WITH UNUSUAL VIGOR TEMPERED BY HUMOR AND GENUINE HUMILITY HAVE LEFT INDELIBLE MARK ANNALS FAITH. ARDENTLY PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS RADIANT SOUL ABHA KINGDOM.
Colonel Salvatore Pelle was laid to rest with a Bahá’í’ funeral service the following day, August 29, 1995, at Valley of the Sun Memorial Park, Chandler, Arizona.
