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Search for tag "Harlan Ober"
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| 1906. 10 Nov |
Harlan Ober and Hooper Harris sailed from Hoboken, New Jersey for Naples and 'Akká on their teaching trip to India at the behest of 'Abdu'l-Bahá. (Tablet 12 March, 1906) Dr. William Moore, brother of Lua Getsinger, had been chosen to accompany Hooper Harris but he died unexpectedly. Harlan did not have the means for such a trip but Lua Getsinger loaned him the necessary funds. [BW13p868]
During their three days stopover in 'Akká 'Abdu'l-Bahá provided no instructions but promised them that "Whenever difficult questions or problems come to you, turn your hearts to the heart of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and you will receive help." They found that they were astonished with some of their own answers to questions put to them during the trip. [BW13p869]
Later 'Abdu'l-Bahá told Harlan, "Serve the people, speak in the meetings, love them in reality not through politeness, embrace them as I have embraced you. Even if you should never speak great good will be accomplished." This was to become Harlan's creed for teaching the Faith. [BW13p869]
They traveled across India, teaching the Faith, with Persian Bahá'ís Ibn-i-Abhar and Mírzá Mahmúd. See BFA266–71 for details of the trip. [Bahaipedia]
"Hooper Harris and Harlan Ober traveled, during no less than seven months, in India and Burma, visiting Bombay, Poona, Lahore, Calcutta, Rangoon and Mandalay." [GPB261]
‘Abdu’l-Bahá sent the “Tablet of Purity” to America with Hooper Harris on his return from Haifa and India. [Highlights of the First 40 Years of the Bahá’í Faith in New York, City of the Covenant, 1892-1932 by Hussein Ahdieh p10]
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Hoboken; New Jersey; India; Pakistan; Myanmar (Burma); Mumbai (Bombay); Pune (Poona); Kolkata (Calcutta); Lahore; Rangoon; Mandalay |
Harlan Ober; Hooper Harris; Travel teaching |
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| 1920 Jul |
Harlan and Grace Ober made a pilgrimage to visit 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Haifa. They returned via Germany and England where they had the privilege of meeting Shoghi Effendi, then a student at Oxford.
In Germany, at the suggestion of 'Abdu'l-Bahá they went to Leipzig where they spoke about the Faith at the Theosophical Society where two persons accepted the Faith. One was future Hand of the Cause Dr Hermann Grossmann and the other was Frau Lina Benke who shared the message with her husband George Adam Benke, the first European martyr. [BW13p869] |
Haifa; Germany; Leipzig; Oxford |
Harlan Ober; Grace Ober; pilgrimage; Hermann Grossmann; Lina Benke; George Benke |
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| 1920. 28 Jul |
Shoghi Effendi journeyed from Oxford to London to attend the weekly public Bahá’í meeting at Lindsay Hall in Notting Hill Gate. Ethel Rosenberg welcomed Shoghi Effendi, Dr. John Esslemont, who was visiting from Bournemouth, Helen Grand and Grace and Harlan Ober from the United States also attended. After short introductory remarks from Miss Rosenberg, both Grace and Harlan Ober spoke. Shoghi Effendi chanted a Persian prayer. [ERJ228] |
London; United Kingdom |
Shoghi Effendi; Ethel Rosenberg; John Esslemont; Helen Grand; Grace Ober; Harlan Ober |
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| 1938 1 May |
The National Convention was held in Chicago. Those elected to the National Spiritual Assembly were: Dorothy Baker, Allen McDaniel, Horace Holley, Roy Wilhelm, George Latimer, Seigfried Schopflocher, Amelia Collins, Harlan Ober, and Charles Ioas. [BN Issue 116 June 1938 p4]
Grace Roberts Ober, who had just given a report on a travel teaching trip to Louisville KY and on her work in Toronto where she had been the previous Fall, collapsed into the arms of the Convention chairman, Harlan Ober in view of the assembled delegates while ending her address. She was removed from the convention hall and passed away shortly thereafter. See TG75-76 and FMH273-274 for the background to this story.
Born in Thorold, ON of Sarah E. Wilson and the Rev Thomas Tempest Robarts, a cannon in the Anglican Church, Grace's life's work was that of a teacher.
During 'Abdu'l-Baha's tour of America she served as his household manager, going ahead to secure an apartment for him and acting as His housekeeper and hostess.
On July 17, 1912 she married Harlan Ober at 'Abdu'l-Bahá's suggestion. The legal marriage was conducted by Howard Colby Ives. [BW8p656-660]
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Chicago; United States |
Grace Robarts Ober; In Memoriam; Dorothy Baker; Allen McDaniel; Horace Holley; Roy Wilhelm; George Latimer; Seigfried Schopflocher; Amelia Collins; Harlan Ober; Charles Ioas; National Convention; National Assembly, election of |
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| 1956 Ridván |
After their pilgrimage Harlan and Elizabeth Ober travelled to South Africa where they helped form the first all-African Local Spiritual Assembly in Pretoria as had previously been request of them by the Guardian. They returned in December as pioneers. [BW13869] |
Haifa; Pretoria |
Harlan Ober; Elizabeth Ober; pioneers |
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| 1962. 20 Jul |
The passing of Harlan Foster Ober (b. October 6, 1881 in Beverly, Massachusetts) in Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa.
He had graduated from Harvard University in 1905 with a B.A. and later obtained a law degree from Northeastern University in Boston.
Harlan Ober became a Bahá'í at Green Acre in 1905. Another source said it was in the spring of 1906 in a room in the Commonwealth Hotel in Boston that he overcame his doubts while using a prayer and other literature given to him by Lua Getsinger. [LDNW23; 100-101; SBR120-121]
Hooper Harris and Lua Getsinger's brother, Dr. William Moore, were selected to make a teaching trip to India. When Moore died suddenly Harlan Ober was chosen to replace him. As he had no funds for the trip Lua borrowed the money from Mr Hervey Lunt, the father of Alfred Lunt. [LGHC105]
In 1906 he made a visit to 'Abdu'l-Bahá while He was still confined to prison.
On the 17th of July, 1912 he married Grace Roberts (aunt of future Hand of the Cause John Robarts) in a ceremony conducted by the Reverend Howard Colby Ives at 209 West 78th Street in New York. When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited America in 1912 He had suggested that Grace Robarts and Harlan marry, and they both agreed with the match, with Harlan travelling to New York from Boston and proposing in Central Park after being informed of the suggestion by Lua Getsinger. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá performed the marriage ceremony in the room he was staying in in New York on July 17, 1912, and Howard Colby Ives later performed a legal ceremony. [SoW Vol 3 No 12 p14; Bahaipedia; The Jouney West, July 2012; Mother’s Stories: Stories of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Early Believers told by Muriel Ives Barrow Newhall to her son, p. 20]
They adopted three children of English, German and Russian background.
It was from their home in Cambridge, MA, from the office of the National Teaching Committee, that the first Teaching Bulletin was issued on November 19, 1919. This bulletin evolved to the US Baha'i News.
He was closely involved with Race Unity work and made many teaching trips to the southern states with his friend Louis Gregory.
He served on the Bahá'í Temple Unity Executive Board as president or secretary from 1918 to 1920. The work of this board was taken over by the National Spiritual Assembly when it was elected in 1922.
In 1938 Harlan was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada and he served on it until 1941.
Grace passed away in 1938, leaving Harlan widowed.
He married his second wife, Dr Elizabeth Kidder Ober in Beverly, MA on the 21st of June, 1941. Shoghi Effendi was pleased with the way the marriage was conducted, without having any church ceremony or minister conduct the service. [BW13p869, 871]
After their pilgrimage in 1956 Harlan and Elizabeth Ober travelled to South Africa where they helped form the first all-African Local Spiritual Assembly in Pretoria as had previously been request of them by the Guardian. They returned in December as pioneers. [BW13869]
He was appointed to the Auxiliary Board for Protection in Africa in October of 1957 and served on the National Teaching Committee of South and West Africa for two years.
He was buried in the Zandfontein Cemetery in Pretoria. [BW13p870; Find a grave]
[Bahaipedia; BW13p869]
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Beverly MA; United States; Pretoria; South Africa |
Harlan Ober; Grace Robarts Ober; In Memoriam; US Bahai News; Race Unity; Elizabeth Kidder Ober; Elizabeth Ober; Auxiliary Board Members |
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