Janet J. Smith
Janet J. Smith (1932 – May 17, 2014) was a Bahá’í who served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska.
Background[edit]
Smith was born Janet Johnson and grew up in Livingston, Montana, and moved to Alaska after finishing High School, taking a government health job in Juneau in 1952. She married Monte Smith and had a son, Jonathan, while living in Juneau. At some point she was employed as a medical secretary on a ship that delivered medical supplies to the Aleutian Islands, and she first heard of the Faith after meeting Bahá’í pioneers living there, such as Jenabe Caldwell.
She became a Bahá’í while living in Alaska in late 1956[1] and in 1958 she organised devotions for the first Alaskan Bahá’í Summer School held in Juneau.[2] She was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska the same year, as its youngest member, and served on the body for twenty-six years in total, often as Secretary.
She was a delegate of the Alaskan Assembly at four International Bahá’í Conventions held in the Holy Land to elect the Universal House of Justice, and in 1979 she moved to Haifa to serve at the Bahá’í World Center in the Department of Israeli Affairs. She returned to Alaska after completing her term of service, and later returned to Haifa for a second term of service as an assistant at the Universal House of Justice Secretariat.
In 1996 Smith returned to Livingston to live near family. In 2002 she remarried, to John Kolstoe. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2007 and passed away in 2014.
The Bahá’í World Center sent the following message to John Kolstoe following her passing:
“The Universal House of Justice was sorry to learn … of the passing of your dear wife, Janet Kolstoe, and extends to you its loving sympathy for the loss you have sustained. Rest assured of the supplications of the House of Justice in the Holy Shrines for the progress of her soul throughout the divine realms.”[3]
References[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/se/HE/he-78.html.utf8?query=was%7Cvery%7Chappy%7Chear%7Cdeclaration%7CMiss%7CJohnson&action=highlight#gr4
- ↑ Baha'i News (1958). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 332, Pg(s) 14-23 October 2017. View as PDF.
- ↑ https://www.bahai.us/community/news/2014/july-august/janet-smith-kolstoe-served-with-distinction-in-alaska-at-world-center/index.html
