The passing of Stanwood Cobb, (b. November 6 Newton, Massachusetts, 1881 – d. December 29, 1982) noted Bahá'í lecturer, educator and author at his home in Chevy Chase, Maryland at the age of 101 after 75 years of service to the Cause. [BW18p815-817]
• Shoghi Effendi is reported to have said that Stanwood Cobb was the best American Bahá'í writer. [VAB vol1 p197]
• His first exposure to the Faith was in 1906 at Green Acre where he attended a conference during his studies at Harvard Divinity School where he was preparing for the Unitarian ministry. [Wikipedia]
• While serving as a college instructor in Constantinople, disguised as a Turk, he made a visit to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Akka while He was still a prisoner. He met Him again in 1913 (March 23-28) and while He was in Paris and the United States during His Western travels.[ABP507-508,519-520, 526]
• In the years 1912-1913 he was with Sargent's Travel School for Boys. During 1914-1915 he was the head of the English department at St John's College, Annapolis, Maryland. In 1915-1916 he was at Ashville School for Boys in Nashville, North Carolina. During 1916-1919 he served as instructor in English and history at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. [ABP507n1201]
• In 1919 he married Ida Mayan Whitland and that same year became the founder and principal of the Chevy Chase Country Day School and also in 1919 the founder of the Progressive Education Association and its president 1927-1930. In 1922 he was member of the national Bahá'í Children's Education Work Committee. [ABP507n1201]
• He was the author of some 30 books and numerous articles. Some of his publications can be found on Bahá'í Library.
• He served as an editor of Star of the West until 1939 and was a co-editor of World Order.
• He founded Avalon Press in 1935 through which he published his works. [Wikipedia]
• One of his essays entitled The Continuity of Religion was first published in The Bahá'í World Volume VI, 1934-1936.
• Bahá'í Chronicles.
• Stanwood Cobb (age 96) shared this observation of 'Abdu'-Bahá with Jack McLean at Green Acre in 1977. "Abdu'l-Bahá," said Dr. Cobb, "was unlike the other spiritual leaders who came to Green Acre in this respect: He had a wonderful sense of humour and laughed out loud. It is this joy and zest for living that distinguished the Master from the other spiritual teachers there. They were much too serious. `Abdu'l-Bahá fully embraced the joy of life and encouraged his followers to do the same." [What Stanwood Cobb Told Me about 'Abdu'l-Bahá]

This year, with the approval of the Universal House of Justice, the name of the Association was changed from the Canadian Association for Studies on the Bahá'í Faith to the Association for Bahá'í Studies in recognition of its increasingly international character. Also, the Association recently purchased a modest house on the campus of the University of Ottawa to serve as a Center for Bahá'í Studies and as an administrative headquarters for the organization.

The presentations included: "The Psychological and Spiritual Aspects of Personal Growth," by Hossain Danesh, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada who is a practicing psychiatrist; a discussion of the use of computers in indexing the Bahá'í Writings, presented by Edward Fox, a doctoral candidate in computer science at Cornell University; "John the Baptist—The Forgotten Manifestation," by Jack McLean, a doctoral candidate in religious studies at the University of Ottawa; and a presentation on the life and works of Mishkín-Qalam, the famous Bahá'í calligrapher, by Gol Aidun of Brandon, Manitoba.

Also included in the conference was the second annual Ḥasan Balyúzi Lectureship—given this year by Douglas Martin, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, who spoke on the persecutions of the Bahá'ís in Iran under the Pahlavi regime, and by Glenford E. Mitchell, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, who discussed the reaction of people in the West to the current wave of persecutions in Iran.

The last presentation of the conference was that of Amatu'l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum who had recently arrived in North America after several months in Central America. Although not entirely recovered from an illness acquired during her travels, she spoke vigorously—although, uncharacteristically, while seated. Her principal theme was the corrosive effects of the prejudice of the educated toward the illiterate, though she stressed the importance of the contribution of the educated in the Faith and in society.

She also urged the Bahá'ís to redouble their efforts, citing a passage pointed out to her by the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, in which Bahá'u'lláh, while still in Baghdád, had said that if the Bahá'ís had busied themselves with what He had commanded them to do, "now the entire world would be clothed in faith." [BN Issue 607 October 1981 p7; BCVol 3 No 5 July/August 1981 p5]

The publication of A Love That Could Not Wait: The Remarkable Story of Knights of Bahá'u'lláh Catherine Heward Huxtable and Clifford Huxtable by Jack McLean. It was published by One Voice Press in Essex Maryland.
• This is the remarkable story of the love, marriage and pioneering exploits of Cliff and Catherine Huxtable, Knights of Bahá'u'lláh to the Gulf Islands and pioneers to St Helena Island, a goal of the Ten Year Crusade.
• The book is available in pdf and Word format on Jack's website.