William H. Maxwell, Jr.

William Maxwell
Maxwell in Hong Kong, 1976.
Born	c. 1929
NSA member	North East Asia 1957 - 1962 USA 1974 - 1977 1985 - 1988 Fiji ???? - ????
ABM	Asia 1958 - 1963 North America 1965 - 1967
Counsellor	Northwestern Africa 1968 - 1973

Dr. William H. Maxwell, Jr. (b. 1929) is an American Bahá’í who has served the Bahá’í Faith in several administrative posts in Africa, America, Asia, and the Pacific.

Biography

Maxwell began to become disillusioned in Christianity when he was nine years old. In 1944 he heard Marzieh Gail deliver a talk on the Faith at his school, Phoenix Colored High School (later renamed George Washington Carver High School). In 1948 he became one of the first two African-American male students to attend Oregon State University in Corvallis studying education and while at university he met fellow student Frederick Laws and began attending Bahá’í firesides at his home. He was invited to declare by Laws to help establish a Local Spiritual Assembly of Corvallis and he visited Salem where he was able to formally become a Bahá’í. In June 1953 he was drafted into the Army.

Maxwell was stationed in Korea arriving in May 1954 and in September a captain in the Korean army informed him he wanted to become a Bahá’í after having known him for a month. In November 1954 the Bahá’ís in the army stationed in Korea held a celebration of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh in Seoul followed by meetings for discussing the Faith and this resulted in Maxwell meeting Sang-Soon Oh a Korean who had become a Bahá’í through Agnes Alexander many years earlier before losing contact with the community. When Maxwell was discharged from the Army in 1955 he stayed in Korea and became a Professor of English at Chonnam University in Kwangju becoming the first longterm American Bahá’í pioneer to Korea. He wrote of his decision:

"I am in love with Korea, the people, the scenery, my job, everything. . . .This is not pioneering - a word connoting sacrifice of comfort and security for the unknown - this is living. . . .And yet we are blessed with those spiritual moments of confirmation, something of such power and reality as we had thought were reserved for other realms. . ."

In 1956 the first Bahá’í Winter School of Korea was held in Maxwell's home, and in 1957 he was elected to the inaugural National Spiritual of Northeast Asia as its first Chairman. In 1958 he was appointed as an Auxiliary Board member for Asia, and in 1959 he spoke at the Japan Summer School in Takarazuka.

In 1961 Maxwell made a six week visit to the United States with his wife before returning to Korea. In December 1962 he was presented with a 'Kamsajang' (certificate of appreciation) by the Mayor of Kyongju for introducing the city to the Faith. In 1963 an article criticizing the Bahá’í Faith written by a Methodist professor was published in Korea's most widely circulated magazine which Maxwell wrote a reply to which was published in the same magazine, and in April 1963 he organized and facilitated the first Bahá’í Teacher Training Institute for Korea shortly before he and his wife departed Korea moving back to the United States.

In 1964 Maxwell spoke at the Annual Souvenir of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the Wilhelm Property and in 1965 he facilitated sessions on teaching with the perspective of mass enrollments at the Frogmore Institute held in South Carolina. As of January 1965 he was living in Melrose, Massachusetts, and that month he was appointed as an Auxiliary Board member for Propagation for North America and he spoke at many events while serving in the role. In 1967 he retired as Auxiliary Board member to pioneer to Africa, and he and his wife settled in Nigeria, becoming the first pioneers to settle in the north of the country.

In 1968 Maxwell was appointed as a Continental Counsellor for Northwestern Africa when the Institution was established. In 1969 he participated in a Teaching Institute in Accra, Ghana, and in 1970 he represented the Universal House of Justice at the formation of the National Spiritual Assembly of Nigeria in Calabar. In 1971 he participated in a Bahá’í Continental Conference held in Monrovia, Liberia, introducing the Vice-President of Liberia who spoke at the event, and he also attended the 1971 National Convention of Ghana in April. Later in the year he visited the Gambia at the same time as Rúḥíyyih Khánum and they met with the President of the country together, and he hosted Rúḥíyyih Khánum when she visited Nigeria the same year. In 1972 he attended the National Convention of Nigeria, and in December that year he attended the first West Africa Bahá’í Youth Conference in Bathurst, Gambia. In 1973 he attended the Third International Convention in the Holy Land and spoke during one of the plenary sessions.

In 1973 Maxwell returned to the United States, and he was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly in 1974. In November 1976 he returned to Asia to represent the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States at an International Teaching Conference in Hong Kong, and in 1977 he left the United States to pioneer to Fiji where he became head of the Department of Education at the University of the South Pacific. By 1981 he was serving as chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of Fiji, and he lived in the country until returning to America in 1984. In 1985 he was re-elected to the National Assembly of the United States after securing a position as dean of the School of Education at Texas Southern University, Houston. He served on the National Assembly until 1988.

In 2009 Maxwell pioneered to Albania and lived there until returning to America in 2012. As of 2021 he was working as a Professor of Education and living in Arkansas.

Talks

• 1985 - The Human Brain: A Model for Decision Making