Marc Towers
Marc Towers | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 23, 1927 New York City, New York, USA |
| Died | April 28, 1997 Hendersonville, Tennessee, USA |
| NSA member | Virgin Islands 1981 - 1994 |
| ABM | Americas 1962 - 1967 Australasia 1967 - 1969 |
Marc Towers (January 23, 1927 - April 28, 1997) was an American Bahá’í who served as an Auxiliary Board member for the Americas and Australasia. In his career he was an actor.
Biography[edit]
Towers was born in New York City in 1927 but his family moved to Miami Beach, Florida, in 1930 where he was raised. He developed an interest in acting in Florida and when his family moved back to New York City after he had completed high school he studied writing and acting at Columbia University and was cast in several local productions of Broadway shows ultimately leaving his studies to pursue acting fulltime.[1]
Towers acted in several musicals on Broadway however none were a major success and he accepted an offer from his agent to move to Hollywood in 1955. In 1956 he attended a Bahá’í fireside a friend invited him to and after a period of investigation he declared in August 1958. He was then elected to a Local Spiritual Assembly shortly after declaring and in 1962 he was appointed as an Auxiliary Board member assigned the responsibility for everything west of the Mississippi River.[1]
In 1962 Towers was asked to visit Hawaii to assist with efforts to establish a National Spiritual Assembly for the territory and he ultimately moved to Hawaii in 1964 settling in Honolulu where he began working for a local radio station.[1] From Hawaii he also visited the neighboring Pacific nations visiting Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, the Mariana Islands, and the Solomon Islands often accompanying Hands of the Cause visiting the area.[2]
In 1967 Hand of the Cause Collis Featherstone asked Towers to move to Australia and he settled in Sydney and began touring Australia and New Zealand to assist Bahá’í communities. In 1969 he fell ill with a respiratory illness and as he had been unable to secure work he resigned as Auxiliary Board member and returned to Los Angeles. He was elected as a delegate to the National Convention for Southern California up until 1978.[2]
At the 1979 Convention Towers was asked to read a letter from the Universal House of Justice to the Convention which included a request for pioneers to the Virgin Islands and he volunteered to pioneer himself. He was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Virgin Islands shortly after arriving and served in the country until 1994 when he returned to America for his wife's health.[2]
Towers settled in Hendersonville, Tennessee, in May 1994. He began suffering headaches and memory loss and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He was hospitalized in March 1996 and passed away in late April.[2] The Universal House of Justice conveyed the following message after his passing:
"We were saddened to learn of the passing of Mr. Marc Towers, an indefatigable servant of Baha'u'llah whose services to the Faith will be lovingly remembered and whose spirit will be sorely missed. Kindly assure his wife, Florence, and their son David, of our ardent prayers in the Holy Shrines for the progress of dear Marc's soul in the Abha Kingdom, and that they may be divinely comforted during this difficult time.[1]
