Charles Monroe Ioas
Charles Monroe Ioas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 28, 1927 Oak Park, Cook County, Illinois, USA |
| Died | November 9, 2017 Alexandria, Alexandria City, Virginia, USA |
| NSA member | Iberian Peninsula 1957 - 1962 Spain 1962 - 1964 |
| ABM | Spain 1964 - ???? |
Charles Monroe Ioas (July 28, 1927 - November 9, 2017) was an American Bahá'í who served the Faith in different parts of the world, visiting Bahá'í communities in Colombia as a youth, pioneering to the Balearic Isles in the Mediterranean for which he was named a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh, and serving on Bahá'í administrative institutions of Spain.
Biography[edit]
Ioas was born into a Bahá'í family in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1927. His father was Monroe Charles Ioas (1899 - 1992)[1] who was a younger brother of the Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas. He attended Bahá’í children's classes at which he sometimes prepared and delivered talks as a child.[2]
Ioas reaffirmed at the age of fifteen and was an active Bahá’í youth serving on the American National Youth Committee from 1944 to 1946. In his academic career he studied political science and economics at Northwestern University from the age of sixteen and he later enrolled in law school graduating with a law degree in 1950. In 1947 he was appointed to the Inter-America Committee and in late 1950 he visited Colombia at the request of the Committee visiting Bogota, Cali, Baranquilla, Bucaramonga, Cartegena, and Medellin.[3] He was drafted into the army at the beginning of the Korean war in early 1951 and served as a non-combatant in a MASH unit in Korea and Japan.[4]
After completing his military service in 1953 Ioas decided to pioneer to one of the virgin territories Shoghi Effendi had asked the community to open to the Faith moved to the Balearic Islands in Spain aiming to settle in Palma on the island of Mallorca.[5] He arrived on Mallorca in 1954 and in 1955 he met Maria Conchita who became the first native Bahá'í of the Balearic Islands in 1956. They decided to get married however they had to go to Tangier, Morocco, where they were married in the home of Elsie Austin as the Mallorca authorities did not allow for non-Catholics to marry. Conchita lost her Spanish citizenship due to their marriage and they visited the United States briefly where she secured American citizenship.[5]
The Bahá’ís were viewed with suspicion by the Spanish authorities and Ioas was once arrested for twenty-four hours after attending a summer school. When he was elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Iberian Peninsula in 1957 he was arrested alongside five other Assembly members and interrogated but released after answering a series of questions about the nature of the Faith. Shortly after this he visited Madrid to help Matthew Bullock in his efforts to secure official recognition of the Bahá’í Faith with the Spanish government and he moved his residence to the city with the permission of Shoghi Effendi.[6]
Ioas served on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Iberian Peninsula until it was succeeded by independent National Assemblies for Spain and Portugal in 1962. He was elected to the inaugural National Spiritual Assembly of Spain and served on the body until resigning to serve as an Auxiliary Board member in 1964.[7][8]
In 1980 Ioas returned to the United States with his family as he felt the Spanish community had become self sustaining and he and his family settled in Alexandria, Virginia.[9] They later moved to Mount Vernon and he served on the Local Spiritual Assembly until 2010 often being elected as a delegate to the United States National Convention. In 2006 he made an international teaching tour to the Bahá'í communities of Spain, Argentina, El Salvador, Costa Rica, France, and Hawaii.
Ioases wife passed away in 2015 and he passed away in 2017 survived by two daughters and a son as well as five grandchildren.[10]
References[edit]
- Obituary published in The American Baha'i, accessed online 26-7-2019
- FindaGrave page, accessed online 26-7-2019
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Monroe Charles Ioas FindaGrave page
- ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press: Oxford., 2017, pp 349
- ↑ Baha'i News (1951). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 239, Pg(s) 8. View as PDF.
- ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press: Oxford., 2017, pp 350
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press: Oxford., 2017, pp 351
- ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press: Oxford., 2017, pp 352
- ↑ Baha'i News (1965). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 410, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
- ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press, London. pp 353
- ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press, London. pp 353
- ↑ Washington Post Obituary, accessed online 26-7-2019
