Leroy Ioas

'. . . the whole Bahá'í world may now know what we who have worked with you have long known - all the strength and knowledge, the devotion, the undeviating justice, the broad vision and the gentle, personal understanding. Everyone whose life touches yours will retain some of these qualities which you mirror forth so constantly in your service.'

Dr. Mildred Nichols, letter to Leroy Ioas, 1951.

Few twentieth-century lives have been so closely associated with the major events of the formative age of the Bahá'í Faith as the life of Leroy Ioas. From meeting 'Abdu'l-Bahá at the age of sixteen - the seminal spiritual experience of his life - through the entire ministry of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith, to the establishment of the Universal House of Justice, Leroy Ioas dedicated his talent and energy, his drive and pioneering spirit, to the needs of the Faith. He became one of the spiritually eminent American Bahá'ís, a brilliant administrator and gifted teacher. Appointed a Hand of the Cause of God in 1951, he served the Guardian in Haifa until 1957 as Secretary-General of the International Bahá'í Council, and afterwards as one of the Custodians of the Bahá'í Faith.

This book is more than a biography. It illuminates Bahá'í history in the first fifty years of the formative age, when Bahá'í institutions were painstakingly built up, Bahá'í laws and principles given application and the great teaching missions begun. Anita Ioas Chapman's inspiring account will be of value to the many Bahá'ís who did not personally experience those times and who wish to enhance their understanding.