March 7. On this date in 1993, Rowland Estall died in Duncan, British Columbia. He served on the NSA of Canada for twenty-five years, as an Auxiliary Board member for Canada for nine years and as a Continental Counselor for Central America for seven years. He had a successful career in insurance.

 

March 7. On this date in 1993, Rowland Estall died in Duncan, British Columbia. He served on the NSA of Canada for twenty-five years, as an Auxiliary Board member for Canada for nine years and as a Continental Counselor for Central America for seven years. He had a successful career in insurance.

Rowland Estall was born in London, England, on April 27, 1906, as the middle child in a family of seven. His father was a lay reader of the Church of England. In 1920 the family moved to Montreal, Canada.

Rowland joined the Merchant Marine when he was 18 and served as a wireless operator for two years. He studied religion during this time. In 1926 he was introduced to the Bahá'í Faith by Mary Maxwell, the future Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum, at a meeting of the Canadian Fellowship of Youth for Peace, and he declared the following year and formed a Bahá'í youth group with Maxwell and Emeric Sala which wrote to Shoghi Effendi. With the assistance of Elizabeth Greenleaf this group became the first American youth group to systematically study the writings. Rowland met Stella Delanti, an actress, through the youth group and married her. In 1928 Rowland and Emeric were elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly of Montreal.

Rowland enrolled to study journalism, but instead began working in the field of insurance and pensions for the Sun Life Assurance Company, having been introduced through his younger brother who worked for the company. The job involved extensive travel and he used this opportunity to teach the Faith throughout Canada. In 1933 he was appointed to a Contacts Committee dedicated to teaching the Faith by correspondence by the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada. He was responsible for all of Canada.

In 1934 Rowland and Stella moved to Saint-Lambert in order to establish the Faith there, unfortunately their marriage ended shortly afterwards. In 1935 Rowland secured a transfer to Vancouver from the Sun Life Company, the new position also involved extensive travel and allowed him to give talks on the Faith in Calgary, Regina, Toronto, Montreal, St. Lambert, Vancouver and West Vancouver in the late 1930's. While living in Vancouver he was appointed as Regional Teaching Representative by the National Assembly of the US and Canada, helped establish a Vancouver youth group and incorporate the Vancouver Local Assembly, and served on the Regional Teaching Committee for Oregon, Washington, Idaho and British Columbia. In January, 1938, Rowland visited the United States and gave a talk on World Order in Everett, Washington, assisting early teaching efforts there.

He aimed to pioneer to Guatemala in the late 1930's but was advised to pioneer within Canada by Shoghi Effendi and he resigned from Sun Life and moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, in May 1939. He worked for Emeric Sala's business before securing a position with the insurance company Great West Life. By July 1939 Rowland was teaching a regular study group in Winnipeg which was later enlarged through collaboration with Ernest Court, President of the Phoenix Club which was an adult education group. On October 29, 1939, he gave a talk to the combined Unitarian and Federated Icelandic Churches on the Bahá'í concept of a New World Order in Winnipeg. In 1940 he presented a comprehensive introduction to the Faith to over 300 people across nine meetings in Winnipeg.

In 1941 Shoghi Effendi tasked the North American Bahá'ís with establishing at least one Spiritual Assembly in every State and Province which prompted several Regional Bahá'í Conferences. Rowland assisted in organizing the Conference for the Eastern Provinces of Canada held in Montreal from June 28 to July 2 1941. He conducted a daily Teaching Forum at the conference, speaking at it himself on what the Post-War Teaching Objectives of the community were. Rowland also attended the Regional Conference for Ontario in Toronto in August, 1941, and conducted a Teaching Forum. Following these Conferences Rowland concentrated on establishing the Faith in the Prairie Provinces of Canada and he was appointed to the Regional Teaching Committee of Manitoba & Saskatchewan in 1942. In 1943 he was noted for his intensive teaching in virgin areas, and he had become Regional Secretary for Western Canada.

In 1943 Rowland was appointed to the Committee responsible for preparing celebrations of the Bahá'í Centennial in 1944, excluding the dedication in the Temple. He spoke at the Centenary meeting for the Public at Temple Foundation Hall on May 23, 1944, and his address was published in World Order Magazine under the title America and the Most Great Peace. In October 1944 he gave a talk on the Faith to members of the Edmonton Muslim community. In December 1946 Rowland was appointed to Canada's first National Teaching Committee. In 1947 Rowland remarried to Yvonne Frank, a social worker, in Winnipeg and they moved to Montreal in 1948. They had three children and remained together until 1971 for their sake. Rowland attributed the failure of the marriage to his travelling for work and the Faith.

Rowland was elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of Canada in April 1948. By 1951 he was Vice-Chair of the Assembly. In August 1952 he taught at the Ontario Summer School. He expressed his willingness to pioneer outside of Canada for the Faith in a letter to Shoghi Effendi in March 1954, but in May 1954 he received a reply advising him to remain in Canada:

"He will be very happy to see you in the pioneer field. However, he considers that at the present time the national work in Canada has been weakened through Freddie’s death, Rosemary and Emeric Sala’s departure and that of John Robarts and his family. In view of this, he advises you to continue living where you are and helping with the national work, which, if weakened to too great an extent through the departure of all the most active members of the National Assembly, will suffer spiritually, and even endanger, he fears, the success of their part of the Ten Year Plan. Perhaps, at a later date, when the national work is in a stronger position, it will be possible for you to enter the pioneering field."

In June 1954 Rowland was appointed as the first, and at the time only, Auxiliary Board member for Canada and served in the position until 1963. He continued to also serve on the National Assembly after his appointment. In July 1954 he travelled across Canada visiting Bahá'ís in St. John's, Sydney, the Magdalen Islands, Shediac, Charlottetown and Prince Edward Island. By February 1955 he was regularly visiting Quebec to teach the Faith. In October 1955 he visited Bahá'í communities in Ontario and spoke at the Central ontario Teaching Conference in Ingersoll. In September 1956 Rowland delivered the Dedication Address at the Dedication of the Haziratu'l-Quds of Canada in Toronto.

Following the death of Shoghi Effendi in 1957 the Hands of the Cause issued a directive that there should be two Auxiliary Boards, one for teaching the Faith, and the other for protecting it from Covenant-breakers. Rowland was reappointed as an Auxiliary Board member for Protection. In 1963 Rowland was replaced by Frederick Graham as Auxiliary Board member, as it was decided that those serving as Auxiliary Board members and National Spiritual Assembly members could only serve in one capacity and Rowland continued to serve on the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada. In 1963 Rowland attended the election of the first Universal House of Justice, casting a vote for the body as a delegate for Canada. He gave a talk at the World Congress in London the same year. In 1965 he recited a prayer at the funeral of Leroy Ioas.

Rowland retired from his job in 1971. In September 1971 he attended the North Atlantic Oceanic Conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, which was one of fifteen Conferences called by the Universal House of Justice for consultation on the goals of the Nine Year Plan. He opened the Conference by welcoming the attendees as he was representing the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada which was hosting the event.

He toured Central America and the Caribbean for six months following the Conference, attending the Convention at which the National Spiritual Assembly of the Windward Islands was established in April 1972. Later in 1972 he returned to Canada and assisted Jenabe Caldwell in a mass teaching campaign in Quebec. In December 1972 Rowland remarried to Vivian Taylor, an American Bahá'í who he had first met in 1965 at Green Acre and begun a relationship with at the Windward Islands Convention earlier that year, and they pioneered to Martinique in January 1973 where they devoted themselves to re-establishing Martiniques six Local Spiritual Assemblies, succeeding by Ridvan that year.

In June 1973 Rowland was appointed as a Continental Counselor for Central America for an indefinite term. In February 1974 he taught at a Bahá'í institute in Blackman Eddy, Belize. In 1975 he taught classes at an experimental three month deepening institute in Panama. In 1977 he represented the Continental Board at the first National Convention of the French Antilles in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe. In 1978 he consulted with the National Teaching Committee and National Assembly of the Barbados and Windward Islands on their goals for the Five Year Plan and toured the local communities of the region offering suggestions on how individuals could assist in achieving the goals.

In 1980 the Continental Board for Central America was merged with the Boards for North and South America and Rowlands service as Counselor ended. As Counselor he had helped pave the way for the establishment National Assemblies for the French Antilles, the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands, Martinique and Guadeloupe. He moved to Toronto, Canada, in 1981 for his health and economic situation on the advice of the Universal House of Justice. Vivian died due to cancer in September 1985.

In 1989 Rowland introduced Joan Dunne, a nurse, to the Faith while hospitalized and they married in 1992. They moved to Barbados for three months, then to Vancouver Island back in Canada where Rowland died on March 7, 1993. The Universal House of Justice conveyed the following message after his death:

"We are distressed to learn of the passing of Rowland Estall who rendered distinguished services to the Faith for over six decades, including periods of service as Continental Counsellor, Auxiliary Board member, and as member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada for no less than 25 years. His highly meritorious contributions to the establishment of the Cause also included international pioneering to Martinique as well as homefront pioneering to a number of Canadian cities. He will long be remembered for the outstanding part he played in the initial growth of the Canadian Baha'i community and in the development of its international role. Prayers will be offered in the Holy Shrines for the progress of his soul. Kindly convey our condolences to his wife and children in this time of their bereavement."