Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick

Bertha Hyde Kirkpatrick (June 16, 1874 - May 15, 1948) was an American Bahá’í who wrote several articles on the Bahá’í Faith and contributed to The Bahá’í World as an editor, assisted in establishing the Louhelen Summer School and the Local Spiritual Assembly of Ann Arbor, and served on the Index committee of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States & Canada.

Biography

Kirkpatrick was born Bertha Hyde in Rockville, Connecticut, in 1874, where her father, Rev. Henry F. Hyde, was pastor of the Rockville Congregational Church. Her father passed when she was six years old and she and her four siblings were raised in poverty with their mother having to take in boarders for income. Despite these circumstances she was able to attend Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, graduating in 1898.

After completing her studies Kirkpatrick became a science teacher teaching in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania. In 1908 she moved to Topeka, Kansas, to assist her brother Arthur Hyde who had been widowed and she began teaching science at Central Park Elementary School. In 1912 her sister Mabel Paine discovered the Bahá’í Faith by attending a talk by Lua Getsinger and by 1915 both Mabel and Kirkpatrick had become Bahá’ís. Kirkpatrick was the second Bahá’í of Topeka and she established connections with the Bahá’í community of Urbana which resulted in travel teachers visiting Topeka and by 1919 a small community had been established.

By 1924 she had married Dr. John E. Kirkpatrick, a colleague of her brother, and they settled in Olivet, Michigan, that year. In 1927 she began to write articles for Star of the West and was appointed to its editorial staff. Her husband initially had a negative opinion of the Bahá’í Faith limiting her capacity to serve the community however the day before his passing in 1931 he declared. In the summer of 1931 Kirkpatrick assisted with planning the first Louhelen Bahá’í Summer School and she served on the Louhelen Summer School committee for the rest of her life often being elected secretary and corresponding with Shoghi Effendi in the role. In 1932 she moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to assist teaching efforts initially planning to stay for the winter of that year however by 1934 she had moved to the city.

In 1940 Kirkpatrick was appointed an editor of The Bahá’í World and in 1942 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Ann Arbor was established. By the late 1940's she had returned to Olivet and in 1948 she passed after being a passenger in a car accident while driving to Olivet from the Louhelen Summer School after attending a school comittee meeting.