Orol Platt

Laura "Orol" Platt (July 18, 1866 - March 15, 1964) was an early American Bahá’í who assisted in teaching the Bahá’í Faith in Los Angeles County.

Biography

Platt was born Laura Arkell in 1866 to James Arkell, a United States Senator, and Sarah Hall Bartlett. Her family established the Beech-Nut Packing Company of Canajoharie, New York. At some point she married Arthur Collins Platt. She had become a Bahá’í by the 1910's and was among the earliest Bahá’í of Los Angeles. In 1917 she began providing funding for the Tarbiyat School in Tehran, Iran, with the school eventually naming a department after her.

A Bahá’í study class was hosted in Platt's home in Los Angeles in the 1910's, with prominent Bahá’ís Beulah Storrs Lewis, and Carole Lombard and her mother being introduced to the religion through it. In 1925 she visited Honolulu, Hawaii, and Japan with her husband and was able to meet with Agnes Alexander in Hawaii and teach the Faith in Japan. She assisted with efforts to establish a Bahá’í community in Long Beach, California, in the late 1920's making weekly visits alongside Beulah Storrs Lewis to facilitate a study class for a six month period.

Platt continued to host Bahá’í events in her home into the 1940's, and in 1946 she established a University of Southern California scholarship which provided funding for twenty-five students a year to study at the University. She passed away in Los Angeles in 1964.