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WILLIAM H. ZUCKER 1943—1997 William H. Zucker, Bill as he was affectionately known to his friends, was born on May 3, 1943, the only child of Arthur and Dorothy Zucker. Growing up in a Jewish family in the Bronx, New York, he had his bar mitzvah when he was thirteen. In 1954 Bill’s father made a trip to Chicago and returned to New York bringing with him the Bahá’í Faith. The Zucker family began to attend meetings at the Evergreen Cabin in West Englewood, New Jersey, as well as at the New York Bahá’í Center. Bill and his mother declared their belief in Baha’u’llah in 1957, and as a Bahá’í youth Bill attended Bahá’í youth classes taught by Nat Rutstein.
Bill was an excellent Bahá’í teacher. He invited everyone he came into contact with to firesides and Bahá’í meetings. While a student in college he organized Bahá’í club meetings. In later years he was instrumental in forming Bahá’í clubs at the institutions where he taught, such as the University of the South Pacific (Suva, Fiji) and the John F. Kennedy High School (Tumon, Guam). In 1988 Bill received the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Teaching—the highest honor accorded by the United States, recognizing the contributions of teachers to their classrooms and to their profession. "Hie award recognized Bill’s work in Guam, a territory of the United States.
Bill loved teaching the masses. He sought out places where mass teaching efforts were focused and offered his services sacrificially. This was the reason he moved from New York to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1970. His first experiences in teaching the masses were in the Carolinas during the latter years of the Nine Year Plan (1964—1973)—a period of unprecedented
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expansion when African-Americans enrolled in the thousands. He was elected to the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Chapel Hill serving it from 1971 to 1975, at times its chairman or treasurer.
Bill left Chapel Hill in 1975 to pioneer to the Fiji Islands. He signed up for classes in the Fijian language and eventually was able to speak it fluently. He traveled extensively throughout the inhabited islands assisting in the teaching and consolidation work. Sometimes sleeping on grass mats in native huts in remote islands and traveling by boat from one island to another, he was well known to the indigenous Bahá’ís. He participated in a mass teaching campaign in the south and southwestern parts ofViti Levu. Bill served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Fiji and on the Local Spiritual Assembly of Nausori. As well as being an officer on both institutions, he served on the National Teaching Committee and the Prominent Individuals Committee. During this time he worked for the South Pacific Commission—a regional
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IN MEMORIAM 1 992~1997 27
intergovernmental organization for technical, professional, and scientific planning and development.
Bill loved attending Bahá’í conferences and events. In 1978 after attending the South East Asian Conference in Sarawak, Malaysia, he went to Singapore where he met and fell in love with Siew Lian Lim. They were married in Suva, Fiji, at the end of April 1979, just after the National Convention. His wedding, as he had wished, was a significant teaching event.
Together with his wife and father, Bill arrived in Guam in April 1982. One of his great joys was to travel teach to the islands of Tinian, Rota, and Saipan. He served on the National Teaching Committee, Newsletter Committee, Publications Committee, and on several Local Spiritual Assemblies.
In 1983 Bill and his wife pioneered to New Caledonia. He was able to secure a position of some responsibility with the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), which operated under the umbrella organization of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The SPREP grew out of a small program that was affiliated with the South Pacific Commission for which Bill had worked while he was in Fiji. During his two yeaIs in New Caledonia he was able to travel teach to Fiji, Cook Islands, Nuie, Papua New Guinea, American and Western Samoa, Tahiti, Wallis Island, Nauru, Vanuatu, and the Loyalty Islands.
Bill and his wife returned to Guam in the fall of 1985. His father, Arthur, was in poor health and needed his son’s care. Until Arthur’s passing in 1991 Bill tended to him lovingly. He arranged his own affairs so as to make short teaching trips without disrupting Arthur’s care. His teaching trips were mostly in Micronesia, to Palau, Yap,
Kiribati, and Chuuk. He also participated in teaching activities that resulted in a threefold increase in enrollments in Saipan.
From 1989 until his death Bill’s desire was to teach in China. In the summers of 1989 and 1990 he travel taught extensively in Taiwan, spending a short time in Macau and mainland China. In the summer of 1992 he traveled to Beijing where he visited some of the friends who had become Bahá’ís in Guam.
About 1990 Bill went to Honolulu For a physical examination at the Queen’s Medical Center. He was diagnosed as having a very rare type of cancer and was given six months to live. Undaunted he suffered the illness for almost two years. He continued to serve with determination and steadfastness until his last days. As well as being an assistant to an Auxiliary Board member, he gave of himself to the National Chinese Teaching Committee of the Mariana Islands, the Local Spiritual Assembly ofDededo, Guam, and the Bahá’í Club at the high school where he taught and where he was a youth advisor. He was an active participant in the National Teaching Conference held in Guam on October 25, 1992.
In May of that year Bill was grateful to be able to travel to the Holy Land to take part in the Centenary Commemoration of Baha’u’llah’s Ascension. He came back to Guam spiritually radiant. Being an accomplished violinist he then began to prepare for his part in the New York World Congress Orchestra. As a Bahá’í youth he had attended the First World Congress, and he was now looking forward to attending the second. On November 16, 1992, two days before he was to fly to New York to practice with the orchestra, he passed away peacefully in his sleep. On that day the Universal House ofjustice wrote:
THE Bahá’í WORLD
. . . grieved news passing dearlyloved servant of the Faith, Dr. William H. Zucker. His professional accomplishments and Bahá’í services, particularly in the Pacific area, are unforgettable. Offering ardent prayers Holy Shrines for progress his soul. Kindly also assure his clear wife of our prayers on her behalf. May the services which she is rendering to the Faith bring her consolation.
