William Tucker

William Tucker
ABM	Americas 1965 - 1986

Dr. William Tucker is an American Bahá’í who served as an Auxiliary Board member.

Tucker helped establish the Bahá’í community of Asheville, North Carolina, and worked to promote racial integration and unity in the town alongside his wife Bernice. He assisted with the development of Bahá’í communities across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and the Bahamas in his role as Board member and also served as a pioneer in Argentina and Jamaica. In his professional career he was an optometrist.

Biography

Tucker was born in Greenville, North Carolina. He first became aware of the Bahá’í Faith in the 1940's after watching newsreels, and he approached W. Kenneth Christian who was a faculty member of the East Carolina Teacher's College where Tucker was studying to learn about the religion. Tucker declared in 1946 and graduated from the College in 1947.

At the beginning of the 1950's Tucker moved to Chicago where he studied optometry at the Northern Illinois College of Optometry and in 1951 he married Bernice Buettner. They settled in Greensboro, North Carolina, after he completed his studies and by 1954 he had established an optometry practice which provided racially integrated care. In April 1955 Tucker attended the United States Bahá’í National Convention, having been elected as a delegate of his community, and while at the Convention he decided to pioneer and the family moved to Argentina. In 1958 the Tucker's returned to the United States moving to Asheville, North Carolina, and began holding racially integrated meetings which resulted in Tucker receiving death threats and threats towards his business, and at some point Tucker was appointed to the US Bahá’í Interracial Teaching Committee.

In 1963 the Tucker's attended the First Bahá’í World Congress in London, England. In 1964 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Asheville was established with both Tucker and his wife elected as inaugural members, and in 1965 Tucker was appointed as an Auxiliary Board member. He taught at the Deep South Bahá’í Institute held in Waveland, Mississippi in 1965, facilitated study classes at the Southwestern Bahá’í Summer School at Turner Falls, Oklahoma, and the East Texas Bahá’í Institute in Houston in 1966, and spoke at Auxiliary Board Team Conferences in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Alexandria, Virginia, in 1967.

In 1970 Tucker pioneered to Jamaica remaining in the country until 1973 when he returned to Asheville, serving as an Auxiliary Board member for the jurisdiction of Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia after settling back in the United States. In 1975 he visited Australia to speak at the countries first National Bahá’í Youth Institute, and that year he was assigned as jurisdiction over the Bahamas as Board member. He attended the first National Convention of the Bahamas in 1978 at which the countries National Spiritual Assembly was established, speaking on the history and development of the Bahá’í Faith in the Bahamas, and he and his wife were honored at a luncheon in Asheville back in the United States for their long running efforts to promote racial and religious harmony in the community.

In 1979 Tucker participated in the first Bahá’í conference to be held Massanetta Springs, Virginia, and in a Training Institute held in Miami, Florida, having been assigned the jurisdiction of Florida as Auxiliary Board member, with his area of jurisdiction as Board member consisting of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and the Bahamas as of 1980. Tucker spoke at several conferences in 1981 including the South Carolina Bahá’í Homecoming held Hickory Knob State Park in South Carolina, the Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute also in South Carolina, and an Auxiliary Board Team Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

In 1983 Tucker attended the National Convention of Bermuda, and spoke at the Green Lake Bahá’í Conference in Wisconsin, In 1984 his jursidiction as Auxiliary Board member changed returning to Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia, and that year he spoke at a Conference held in Knoxville, Tennessee, dedicated to discussing developing distinct Bahá’í characteristics. In 1985 illness prevented him from attending a conference held in Tampa, Florida, and in 1986 he completed his service as Auxiliary Board member having served in the role for two decades.

Tucker remained an active member of the Asheville local Bahá’í community after his service as Board member and delivered a talk at a local museum commemorating the 75th Anniversary of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's visit to North America in 1987.