Alma Gregory

Alma Cynthia Gregory (May 11, 1904 - December 5, 1997) was an American Bahá’í who served on the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles.

Biography

Gregory was born Alma Cynthia Ginman on Long Island, New York, in 1904. Her mother, Louise, became a Bahá’í in Burlingame, California, in 1910 and she was raised as a Bahá’í learning about the religion from Ella Cooper, Hyde and Clara Dunn, and Ali Kuli Khan in her youth.

In 1918 Gregory was enrolled in Cheltenham Ladies College in England when her parents moved to China for work. In 1920 her mother moved to London and Gregory lived with her. Shoghi Effendi visited their home while he was studying at Oxford. She was an active member of the British Bahá’í community throughout the 1920's, despite never formally joining the religion. She married Walter Gregory in 1933 who served in the Air Force as a pilot and he was killed in action in 1942. She formally became a Bahá’í the same year her husband passed.

In August 1946 Gregory pioneered to Northampton to help establish a Local Spiritual Assembly remaining until 1949 when she pioneered to Liverpool. She began serving the Faith in an administrative capacity at the same time as she pioneered being appointed to the National Youth Committee in 1946. She served on the Youth Committee until 1948 when she was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the British Isles and appointed to the Assembly Development Committee, and she served on both intermittently until 1956.

Gregory pioneered to Stornoway, Scotland, in 1969 and remained at her post for the rest of her life passing in Stornoway in 1997.