Richard Walters
Richard Harding Walters (September 7, 1913 - May 12, 1999)[1] was an American Bahá’í who was named a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for pioneering to Morocco.
Biography[edit]
Walters was born in 1913. He began investigating the Bahá’í Faith in the 1930's by attending firesides and studying Bahá’í literature. He was living with his mother at the time and she demanded that he either throw out his Bahá’í books or leave the home and he moved out and declared.[2]
In 1938 Walters met fellow Bahá’í Evelyn at the Green Acre Summer School and in 1941 they married in Teaneck, New Jersey. In 1942 they pioneered to Albuquerque to help establish a Local Spiritual Assembly. By 1947 they had two children, Nina and Richard, and that year they pioneered to Tucson, Arizona.[2]
In May 1953 the Walter's attended the Chicago Intercontinental Conference held to launch the Ten Year Crusade and they volunteered to pioneer to an international post with Walter working three part time jobs in the following six months to raise funds. They sailed to Morocco and settled in Tangier in 1954.[2] The following year they moved to Casablanca where Richard secured a position working on a U.S. Air Base.[3] While in Casablanca there was some suspicion of them in the Arab community of the city as they were Europeans and there were two attempts made to assassinate Richard and one attempt to kidnap his daughter.[4]
In December 1960 all U.S. air bases in Morocco were shut down leaving Walters unemployed and the family arranged to return to the United States. Before departing they consulted with the European Teaching Committee of the United States and decided to pioneer to Portugal settling in Larangeiro near Lisbon.[4] Their son became ill in 1961 and due to an initial misdiagnosis he passed away after surgery in May, 1961.[5]
Conditions in Portugal were a strain on the Walters marriage and they divorced in 1965. Walters contacted Evelyn again in 1992 by which time he had been diagnosed with cancer and they remarried and pioneered to Texarkana, Arkansas, where he passed away in 1999.[6]
References[edit]
- ↑ The Bahá’í World, An International Record. (2001). Bahá’í World Centre. Haifa. Volume 28 (1999-2000), Pg(s) 312. View as PDF.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press: London, 2017, p 30
- ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press: London, 2017, p 31
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press: London, 2017, p 33
- ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press: London, 2017, p 34
- ↑ Redman, E. The Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, George Ronald Press: London, 2017, p 35
