Paul Pettit

Paul R. Pettit
Pettit at U.S. National Office, 1964.
Born	November 14, 1925 Bucyrus, Ohio, U.S.A.
Died	December 23, 2010 Richardson, Texas, U.S.A.
NSA member	United States 1964 - 1969
ABM	North America 1970 - 1986
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Paul R. Pettit (November 14, 1925 - December 23, 2010) was an American Bahá'í who served on the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, various Local Spiritual Assemblies, and as an Auxiliary Board member.

Biography

Paul was born in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1925. He was a Bahá'í early in his life and was serving on the Louhelen School Committee as of 1943 and as Chairman of the National Youth Committee as of 1944. He served in the Air Force during WWII with the 509 Composite Group based in the Mariana Islands, on Tinian, becoming a Sergeant and earning two Bronze Stars, a Good Conduct Medal, and a WWII Victory Medal. After the war he served in the reserves as a 2nd Lt.

By December 1945 he had returned to the United States and had been reappointed to the Louhelen School Committee and in 1946 he spoke at Louhelen Summer School on travelling to other lands to Junior Youth. In 1947 he visited Flint, Michigan, and led a discussion on public speaking at a Bahá'í Youth Institute. In 1948 he chaired a Tri-State Youth Conference held near Lake Michigan. Around this time he helped produce Indexes for several Bahá'í texts, including God Passes By, which he was thanked for by the National Assembly in 1948.

By 1950 Paul was studying Agriculture at Michigan State University where he completed a Bachelor of Science. He delivered a talk to 110 members of a Spiritualist Episcopal Church at the YWCA in Lansing that year. He later performed graduate work in Personnel Management at Northwestern University and embarked on a business career, and by 1955 he was living in Fort Worth.

He served as a Bahá'í travel teacher throughout the 1950's. Some of his activity included being invited to speak on the Faith at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas with Eldon Dennis. They held a two day seminar which was reportedly received with interest. In 1959 he assisted in conducting a Teaching Campaign in Shreveport. In 1961 he taught on the Covenant, Bahá'í Institutions, and Youth teaching at the Frogmore Winter Conference. As of 1962 Paul had been appointed to the American National Teaching Committee. In 1962 he spoke at a celebration of the Anniversary of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's visit in San Francisco.

In 1964 Paul was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly, and in May 1964 he spoke at a Wichita Youth Conference. He presented the Nine Year Plan at the opening session of the first Rocky Mountain Bahá'í School in June 1964, and in July he gave the closing talk at the first Southern California Summer School. In November he delivered a talk on the Faith to the Kiwanis Club after which 35 took pamphlets on the Faith. In 1965 Pettit spoke at the Souvenir of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in West Englewood. In 1966 he spoke at the Wichita Youth Conference, Southwestern Summer School, an East Texas Bahá'í Institute, and a Dallas Youth Conference.

In 1970 Paul was appointed as an Auxiliary Board member for North America. That year he chaired a talk given by Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1971 he spoke at a Mass Teaching Conference in El Paso, Texas, and at a Deepening Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. He continued to serve as Board member until at least 1983.

Pettit passed away in 2010 in Richardson, Texas. He was survived by his brother.

References

• Obituary published in Dallas News