BEVERLY W KOLSTOE
1930-1996
'A bdu'l-Baha said, "To be a Baha'i simply means to love all the world;
to love humanity and u y to serve it; to work for universal peace and universal
brotherhood." That well describes the life of Beverly Kolstoe.
Beverly was born on April 18, 1930, and raised among the blue-collar workers
of industrial northern Illinois. From her earliest days she seemed immune from the
rampant race and class prejudice of the area. Her mother said, "I think Beverly
was meant to become a Baha'i. Even when she was a little girl; she would stick up for
people whom others looked down on."
Beverly attended the National College of Education in Evanston, Illinois, close to
the Wilmette Temple. She wrote, "I was familiar with the House of Worship with its
nine doors always open to those of all faiths but did not investigate Baha'i beliefs until
John and I went together." Her husband to- be, John Kolstoe, was in the navy. They
married in August 1952 and became Baha'is in April 1953 during the First Holy Year
and the launching of the Ten Year Crusade. They lived in Portsmouth, Virginia, and
later moved to North Dakota, following which they went on to graduate school at
the University of Minnesota.
In 1957 the beloved Guardian called for four Continental Conferences to be
held the next year. "Beverly and I had talked of pioneering in three or five years
after finishing graduate school," recalled John. "Then, I went to the Conference in
Chicago and plans speeded up. Unknown to me, she had expected me to volunteer
at the Conference. Upon my return to Minneapolis, she immediately and directly
asked where we were going. I told her Alaska. She calmly replied, 'Oh, I was
hoping for some place warm.' Warm or not, we went north that summer."
After selling their mobile home and their car-all they owned in the world-they
moved to Anchorage, arriving in August 1958. Beverly became a speech therapist at a
treatment center for disabled children, and John was a counselor at Anchorage High
School. During their three years there they fostered one child and adopted two. "It
had always been a puzzle to me why God had not seen fit to give us children, when
we wanted them so much," wrote Beverly. "I had many pregnancies, always with the
very best of medical care, yet all ended prematurely. When we adopted Tahirih and
Karl, both Athabascan Indians, we had not thought of pioneering to an Athabascan
village. Nor had we specified race when we applied for adoption." The children
enabled many doors to open for them when they pioneered to Fort Yukon, an Indian
village on the Yukon River. The decision to move there had been Beverly's choice and
was made when the Hand of the Cause of God William Sears visited Alaska in 1960
and made a call for pioneers. "While John was away, I went to Fort Yukon on my
investigative trip," recalled Beverly. "I loved it immediately. It was a
picturesque settlement of tiny log cabins clustered along the Yukon River." Beverly
and John both found work as teachers.
Their initial greatest difficulty centered around the house they had rented and
which they had spent two weeks cleaning. They then found out that it had been sold,
and they had to move out! They eventually found a small four-room log cabin down
by the river. Beverly continued: Obviously, Baha'u'llah knew what
He was doing, but we only realized it in retrospect ... The good thing about
this move was that it was down in the village among the Indian people. We
were village people, not white schoolteachers. The Indians were familiar with
the house and comfortable with it, so they came and went, and were our
friends. It was there that the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Fort Yukon was
formed, on August 1, 1962.
The bad part was that because it was so close to the river, it flooded nearly
every year and washed away the mud foundation, leaving the floor boards
exposed to sub-zero temperatures. That first winter was the coldest on record,
with weeks of 50 to 60 [Fahrenheit] below zero temperatures.
Their adopted baby son Karl got pneumonia, and despite penicillin shots, he
just was nor getting any better. "We had nearly reconciled ourselves that our baby
boy would be a sacrifice to our pioneering post, but we wrote to the Hands in
the Holy Land and asked for prayers. Suddenly, miraculously, Karl got well! A
few days later we received a letter from the Holy Land: 'We prayed for your son
at the Shrines today."'
After three memorable years in Fort Yukon, they moved to Fairbanks, and during
the summer of 1964 they moved to Tanana Valley community, outside Fairbanks, where
they spent the next five years.
"In 1969, during the Nine Year Plan, there was a great need for homefront pioneers
in Alaska and so we moved again, this time to Palmer in nearby Maranuska
Valley," recalled Beverly. "John's company had no objection to moving his office to
Palmer, and so, in September, just before school started, we moved the family down.
We found a large house on the main street, which we purchased and lived in for sixteen
years. The Local Spiritual Assembly of Palmer was formed in April 1970."
After twenty-seven years of service in Alaska, it was time for me to get my
original wish, a chance to pioneer in a warm place. John was finishing his
twentieth year with his insurance company and was eligible for a pension. The
children were pretty much raised. We began looking forward to this new arena
of service. Our grandchild, Terianne, had been living with us for several years.
We approached her mother, Tahirih, for permission to adopt Terianne. So
our first grandchild became our fifth adopted child. And we set our faces
toward a goal for Alaskan pioneers, in St. Lucia. At last, a warm place!
In 1985 Alaska was given two international goals: St. Lucia and Iceland. Beverly
was serving on the Baha'i International Goals Committee, and she chose St. Lucia
before anyone else had a chance at it. The family stayed there for five years, and she
loved every minute of it. But then, she loved every minute of life.
She poured out her love generously and bonded deeply. Once, on a long trip
she said, "The thing I miss most about Alaska is the women from our community."
Service was her constant joy: children's classes, Nineteen Day Feasts, entertaining,
and reaching the Faith. Beverly served on numerous local and national committees
including the Child Education Committee, National Teaching Committee, and her
dearest love, the Baha'i International Goals Committee; the "Big c" she called it. She
was a fixture as secretary of the Alaska National Convention for six years in a row,
and she served on the National Spiritual Assemblies of both Alaska and St. Lucia.
Beverly loved children. In addition to five adopted children of various races, there
always seemed to be one or two others living with them.
While pioneering in St. Lucia she found that in many villages there were Baha'is
eager to teach children's classes, but they had little material or training. So she wrote
a simple yet thorough and systematic curriculum that could be used by people who
had no other resources, experience, and training-materials that have been used
effectively in many countries and for which plans were made for publication.
Her greatest joy came in 1987, while her mother was living with them in St.
Lucia. At the age of eighty-three, she accepted Baha'u'llah, thirty-six years after her
daughter had. Tears flowed for two days. Beverly's energy and enthusiasm for life
made her seem like the emblem of health, and she thought of herself as a healthy
person. Yet she had been plagued by serious medical problems all of her life, having been
told at sixteen that she only had five more years to live. She actually lived fifty more.
One week after returning from the Baha'i World Congress in New York, she suffered a
severe heart attack. Though her energy was limited, she did what she could and would
radiantly explain, "My days are as good as anyone else's. They are just shorter."
She had had quadruple bypass surgery in 1975· Twenty-one years later, on Monday,
June 10,1996, she had additional heart surgery.
Complications set in, and she had no reserve energy left. About 10 AM on Tuesday,
June 18, she peacefully slipped away.
A few months before her passing, she learned that John had purchased a burial
shroud for her. She was delighted but felt the white shroud was too plain. So, she
bought some lace trim with little pink hearts. She said she wanted "to go out in
style." Before her surgery she calmly sewed on the trim, "Just in case."
Her life was full, and she described it best in her own words. During a sleepless
night three years before her death, she wrote a thirty-eight stanza poem in free verse that
she called "I have had the most AMAZING LIFE." In it she recounts the extraordinary
things she had done and concluded with, "Thank you, God. I have been most blessed!
Your humble servant ... Beverly." Learning of her passing, the Department
of the Secretariat sent the following message to the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of Alaska on June 19, 1996:
The Universal House of Justice was grieved to learn of the passing of
dear Beverly Kolstoe. Her steadfastness in the Covenant, long and
devoted services as an international and homefront pioneer, membership
on the National Spiritual Assembly, special love and relationship with
children, and dedicated endeavours as a teacher of the Faith are remembered
with particular warmth and admiration. The House of Justice
will offer prayers in the Holy Shrines for the progress of her radiant soul
in all the worlds of God, and for the comfort of her dear family.
John Kolstoe