John Shurcliff

John Perkins Shurcliff (c. 1911 - November 17, 1993) was an American Bahá’í who assisted in the establishment of the Bahá’í Faith in Belgium.

Biography

Shurcliff attended MIT and Harvard University in his youth and in his professional career he went on to invent Crayoneer multi-colored pencils. In his personal life he married Eunice Allyn and they had two daughters. In the Second World War he served as a flight instructor in the United States Army.

As of the 1940's the Shurcliff's had become Bahá’ís and Shurcliff spoke on his experiences in the Army at the 1944 National Convention of the United States. In March, 1947, the Shurcliff's pioneered to Brussels, Belgium, where they began making efforts to establish a Bahá’í community, and in 1948 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Brussels was established with Shurcliff being elected to it. By 1949 a Bahá’í Center had been secured in Brussels which the Shurcliff's used as their residence.

In 1950 the Shurcliff's returned to the United States. In 1960 Shurcliff was appointed to the Area Teaching Committee of the Tennessee Valley States.

In 1993 Shurcliff passed in Greenville, South Carolina, survived by his wife and daughters.