Symposium on Local Bahá’í History

Joyce is from Nashville, Tennessee, and became a Bahá’í there in 1973. She has a degree in English and Journalism and for 10 years was the associate editor for a small specialty publisher in Nashville. She later spent five years as the publications manager for the Fraternal Order of Police. In 2004 she self-published her memoir, “A Child of Tender Years: Hayden’s Journey." In 2011 she left the United States for Uganda, where she served the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Uganda for 18 months. That experience inspired a children’s book titled ‘Agnes and Angella: A Tale of Two Cows in Uganda.’ For the last seven years Joyce has served at the Bahá’í National Center, working from her home in Smyrna, Tennessee. She has been working on her history of the Nashville community far too long and hopes to publish it in the coming year.

Burton R. Smith  was born in Lansing, MI of Bahá’í  parents William and Eva Smith, One of 4 Smith Children Burton  Declared his belief in Baha’u’llah and the Bahá’í Cause in 1971 at the LouHelen Center for Higher Learning. At Princeton, Burton  co-founded the Princeton Bahá’í Club with Jay Tyson ’76 author of the “Wise Men of the West” book series. Bill Foster was the Club Advisor. Burton was also a founding member of the Princeton University Jazz Ensemble and was the first person of African descent to medal for the Princeton Golf Team at the Harvard Yale Princeton match at Yale in 1976 .  Burton  has sung with Tom Price and Van Gilmer at Carnegie Hall, and  Ryman  Auditorium, and participated in the Bahá’í Choral Festivals at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, IL  since their inception. He also attended the “Pupil of the Eye” POTE  Conference in Nashville in 2019. Burton was one of the 32 members of the Bahá’í Black Mens Gathering (BMG) who traveled to Ghana and Haifa in December, 2006. He retired from the State of Michigan as a Staff Specialist in 2010, and lives in Lansing, MI with Denyse, his wife of 34 years. Their son Brandon lives and works in Chicago. Burton has researched the “Lost Histories of Lansing MI," and has done the following Presentations in person and on Zoom: 1. “The History of the Bahá’í Faith in Lansing, MI 2. Interstate 496- Impact on Neighborhoods, Businesses and Worship- Yesterday and Today 3. The Lost History of David and Joy Earl – from Lansing, MI to the World” 4. “Louis G. Gregory” An Independent Investigation.

Dr. Mark Vaccaro is a medical doctor who has been a Bahá’í since 1979. While a pioneer to Dominica with his wife Allison, he began documenting through photography and videography important milestones in the development of the Bahá’í Faith in the Caribbean region. He was a producer for the Dominica Bahá’í Faith Radio Program from 1983 to 2013 and a producer for the Dominica Bahá’í Faith Television Program from 1987 to 1993. When back in the United States he paired up with Alex Resnick to start the Oklahoma Bahá’í Oral History Project in 2004. So far eighty Oklahoma Bahá’ís have been interviewed on video for this project.

I have had a passion for researching and teaching about the Bahá’í Faith for more than half of my life. My fascination with American Bahá’í history and with the first American Bahá’í, Thornton Chase, caused me, in 1980, to switch my academic field from planetary science to history of religion in the United States. As I was finishing my doctorate in that field at Harvard University in 1990, I drew up plans to create a Bahá’í Studies institute that would offer courses, encourage research, and publish. Instead, I was hired by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States to start a research office at our national Bahá’í headquarters in Wilmette, Illinois. Some of the responsibilities of the research office led to the creation of the Wilmette Institute, which ​focuses on most of the tasks of the institute I originally conceived. Meanwhile, I have also remained involved in academia, teaching religious studies part time at DePaul University in Chicago and currently at Indiana University South Bend, just a mile from home. I have also published four books on aspects of Bahá’í history (including a biography of Thornton Chase) and one introductory textbook on the Faith. Listen to Robert’s interview on ‘A Bahá’í Perspective’ podcastSee Faculty Bio