Roger White
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Roger White (June 2, 1929 - April 10, 1993) was the oldest of four children. He was born in Toronto on June 2, 1929 to Kathleen Rogers and John White, an Irish Roman Catholic family in Canada.
White's parents were not particularly devout Roman Catholics but White attended church regularly; often taking a younger sister with him. The family moved frequently during his childhood but lived longest in Belleville. When he left home he moved to Toronto. In his early twenties, he began to doubt the existence of God. It was also during his twenties that White had self published his first volume of poems, Summer Windows.
In Toronto he encountered the Bahá’í Faith. He was attracted to the universal nature of the Bahá’í teachings and the central theme that the earth is one country and mankind its citizens. In 1951 he entered the Bahá’í community. The one who taught him the Faith shared stories with him that she had heard of the earliest days of the Faith in Canada generating in him a connection to those days. Shortly after this, White returned to Belleville to which his family had earlier returned.
In Belleville he met Helen Owens, who would also accept the Bahá’í Faith. They were married in 1952. Together they taught more people and the next year helped form the first Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Belleville.
At this time White was employed as Clerk of the local county court. He progressed to be assistant editor of Hansard, the record of the proceedings of the Canadian House of Commons. The Whites were very active in the Bahá’í community of Ottawa, but the marriage ended in 1962. After that he took a position with the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver.
The years 1966 to 1969 he spent in Kenya as secretary and assistant to the Hands of the Cause of God of Africa. Next he spent two years in Palm Desert, California as the personal secretary and research assistant for Hand of the Cause of God Mr. William Sears. In 1971 he went to Haifa, Israel to work at the World Centre. He remained there until his retirement in 1991.
Among other duties in Haifa, he was responsible for production of volumes XIV and XIX of The Bahá’í World, a reference series that chronicles the growth and development of the international Bahá’í community.
In Haifa, he was encouraged to develop his own writing. Several volumes of poetry as well as some prose resulted. This work established him as the premier poet of the Bahá’í community. In his correspondence he connected poets around the world with each other.
He wrote of real and archetypal Bahá’ís, bringing them alive to new generations, explored the nature of commitment, relations between genders and the contrast between physical appearance and spiritual realities. Individual poems appeared in a variety of literary journals around the world. Other artists have found inspiration in his work for creating work of their own: paintings, drama, dance and discussion of the Bahá’í religion. This brought joy and satisfaction to his heart
After his retirement he moved to Richmond, Canada and died there on April 10, 1993.
Works[edit]
- Summer Windows (1947) poetry
- Another Song, Another Season (1979) poetry
- The Witness of Pebbles (1981) poetry
- A Sudden Music (1983) fiction
- One Bird, One Cage, One Flight (1983) poetry
- The Shell and the Pearl (1984) history
- Occasions of Grace (1992) poetry
- Notes Postmarked the Mountain of God (1992) poetry
- The Language of There (1992) poetry
- Forever in Bloom (1992) prose
