Hooper Harris

Hooper Harris
Born	December 14, 1866 New York City, United States
Died	July 27, 1934 (aged 67) New York City, United States
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William Hooper Harris, Jr. (December 14, 1866 - July 27, 1934) was an American Bahá’í who served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of New York. He received several Tablets from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and undertook a travel teaching trip across India at His request.

Biography

Harris was born in New York City in 1866 but was raised in Nashville, Tennessee. He intended to study law but upon graduating from High School he had to work to support himself and was only able to attend night classes on law. During this period he married Sarah Gertrude Rawls in 1887. He was able to complete his studies and admitted to the bar in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1893 and he and his wife moved to New York City in 1894 where he worked as a court reporter up until his passing.

In 1899 Harris and his wife attended a meeting on the Bahá’í Faith and they both declared, and in 1901 he was elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly of New York which he served on intermittently up until his passing. He studied the religion extensively and when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá requested that an American Bahá’í participate in a teaching tour of India Harris volunteered. On November 10, 1906, he departed America and traveled to ‘Akká accompanied by Harlan Ober and they met with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. They then traveled to India where they spent seven months touring the country alongside Persian Bahá’ís Mírzá Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání and Ibn-i-Abhar.

Upon returning to America Harris remained an active member of the New York Bahá’í community and an active teacher and he was appointed the Chairman of the National Teaching Committee of the Northeastern States organizing several Teaching Conventions and Conferences. He also provided his home for the use of the Bahá’í community, hosting meetings and Persian travel teachers sent to America by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and hosted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself when He visited America in 1912.

He passed away in 1934 and Shoghi Effendi conveyed the following in a message to his wife after his passing:

"His passing in these early days of the formative period of our Faith is, indeed, a severe loss not only to his friends and relatives but also and mainly to all the American followers of the Movement who had found in his person not only a real and sincere fellow-believer but also an active and capable exponent of the teachings and principles of the Cause.

The irreparable loss of your very dear husband has removed a distinguished figure from the community of the American believers and inflicted a severe blow to its best interests. The share he has had in lending fresh impetus to the teaching activities of its members, the contributions he has made to the advancement of its institutions, the example he has set by his single-mindedness, his eloquent presentation of the essentials of God’s Faith and his exemplary devotion to its cause will long be remembered after him. He was indeed one of the leading apostles of Bahá’u’lláh."