March 5. On this date in 1985, Lloyd G. Gardner died in Bolivia. He was a Canadian Bahá'í who served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada for twenty years, for a time as Chairman, and also as a Continental Counsellor for the Americas.

 

March 5. On this date in 1985, Lloyd G. Gardner died in Bolivia. He was a Canadian Bahá'í who served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada for twenty years, for a time as Chairman, and also as a Continental Counsellor for the Americas.

Lloyd G. Gardner was born in Toronto on March 5, 1915 as the youngest of four children. His father was Ernest, a jeweller. Lloyd followed his father into the jewelling business when he was fourteen, specializing in diamond setting. He played tennis at a high level, and discovered the Faith in 1937 at a camp he attended with his tennis partner in Ontario. The camp owner was a Bahá'í who put them in touch with the Toronto Bahá'í community, which included Howard Colby Ives and Mabel Ives at the time. He became a Bahá'í in 1938, and considered Mabel Ives his spiritual mother.

Lloyd was elected to the Local Spiritual Assembly of Ontario in 1938, and assisted in organizing the first Canadian Bahá'í Summer School held at Rice Lake in Ontario the same year. At the opening of WWII Lloyd was conscripted for military service, he request non-combatant duty and trained as a shipboard medic. He was stationed in Halifax for most of the war, and helped establish the Local Spiritual Assembly of Halifax. In 1945 he was stationed in St. John's, Newfoundland, and he opened the territory to the Faith, holding a public talk on the Faith. After the war he returned to Toronto, where he was re-elected to the Local Assembly, and appointed to the National Youth Teaching Committee.

In 1948 Lloyd was elected to the first independent National Spiritual Assembly of Canada, and he served on the body for the next twenty years. In 1949 he married Helen Smith, a fellow Canadian Bahá'í, and they pioneered to North York, Ontario, living there until pioneering to Oshawa in 1951, where their children Nancy and David were born. In 1954 Lloyd read a reading at the Memorial for Dorothy Baker at the House of Worship in Illinois, representing the Canadian National Spiritual Assembly. In 1956 Lloyd spoke at the Dedication of the National Haziratu'l-Quds of Canada in Toronto. In 1958 Lloyd spoke at the Dedication of a Temple Site at North York, Ontario, which was to be the site of a second House of Worship in America, although it has not yet been constructed. In 1963 he attended the first International Convention in Haifa and acted as a teller for the election of the first Universal House of Justice.

Lloyd was appointed as an inaugural Continental Counsellor for North America in 1968 for an indefinite term by the Universal House of Justice, stepping down from the Canadian National Assembly to serve in the role. In June 1969 he attended a Deepening Conference held by the Continental Board of Counsellors held in Halifax. In July 1970 he served on the Faculty of the Juneau Summer School in Alaska. In 1971 he attended the North Atlantic Oceanic Conference held in Reykjavik, Iceland. In 1972 he attended the United States National Convention. In 1973 he attended the Canadian National Convention. In September 1973 he attended a National Bahá'í Conference held in St. Louis which was attended by 10,000, making it the largest Convention held. In late August and early September 1975 Lloyd participated in a week of proclamation and deepening activities held to commemorate the Anniversary of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá's 1912 visit to Canada. In 1978 Lloyd attended the first National Convention of the Bahamas. At the close of 1978 and beginning of 1979 Lloyd helped maintain momentum in a vast teaching campaign in Canada, which led to the formation of twenty-three Local Spiritual Assemblies.

In 1980 the Universal House of Justice merged the Continental Boards for North, Central, and South America into the Continental Board for the Americas, and introduced five year terms for Counsellors. Lloyd was appointed to the new body, and appointed as Trustee of the Continental Fund. In 1982 he visited Guyana, and spoke at a meeting in Georgetown. In September 1982 he spoke at an International Conference held in the Olympic Velodrome in Montreal, giving a report on the progress of the Seven Year Plan. In 1983 he attended the Canadian National Convention. In June 1983 he visited Holsteinsborg, a settlement north of the Artic Circle, for the Greenland Bahá'í Summer School. In 1984 he spoke at the International Bahá'í Youth Conference held in Canada. In November 1984 he participated in the Conference of the Association for Bahá'í Studies held in Ottawa.

Lloyd died in Bolivia on March 5, 1985, shortly after a teaching trip to St. Lucia and Barbados, and a meeting of the Counsellors of the Americas in Bolivia. The Universal House of Justice issued the following statement:

DEEPLY GRIEVED UNTIMELY PASSING ESTEEMED LLOYD GARDNER STALWART DEFENDER INTERESTS FAITH AMERICAS. HIS DISTINGUISHED LONGTIME SERVICE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CANADA AND MEMBERSHIP BOARD COUNSELLORS AMERICAS SINCE INCEPTION MARKED BY INDEFATIGABLE LABORS ALL ASPECTS TEACHING WORK AND COMMUNITY LIFE NOTABLY YOUTH ACTIVITIES. HIS STERLING CHARACTER HIGH INTEGRITY WARMHEARTED NATURE TOTAL DEDICATION FAITH WORTHY EMULATION. FERVENTLY PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS LUMINOUS SPIRIT ABHA KINGDOM AND SOLACE HIS SORROWING FAMILY. ADVISING ALL COMMUNITIES AMERICAS OFFER PRAYERS IN HIS NAME. REQUESTING NATIONAL ASSEMBLY UNITED STATES HOLD MEMORIAL GATHERING TEMPLE WILMETTE