Visit with Quentin Farrand during travel teaching in El Salvador, June 1995

June 12, 1995 Lago de Coatepeque… visit with Quentin Farrand, long time pioneer with his wife to El Salvador from Detroit, Michigan.

Quentin (Tim) Farrand worked in a military hospital in Denver in 1955.  President Dwight Eisenhauer was a patient the hospital following a heart attack.  Tim had the job of staying with the President for hours every day talking, doing crossword puzzles, and keeping the President from talking about politics.

Tim contacted the National Spiritual Assembly to see if it would be appropriate for him to mention Bahá’i to the President, especially to thank him for his cable to the Shah in 1955 in defense of the Baha’is.  The National Spiritual Assembly okayed it.

Tim told President Eisenhauer he was a Bahá’i and wanted to thank the President for intervening on behalf of the Baha’is in Iran.  The President asked about the Faith.  Tim told him the history of Bahá’u’lláh; mentioned prominent people who had expressed respect for the Faith, such as Tolstoy; and shared the principles.  Eisenhauer especially like the principles.  He told Tim that if the Baha’is in Iran were ever attacked again that he would do anything in his power to defend them. 

Thirty years later while in the states, Tim had an opportunity to visit with Hand of the Cause of God Zikrullah Khadem.  Mr. Khadem told Tim that later in 1955 the Mullahs in Iran had decided to incite mobs to burn the homes of prominent Baha’is and to kill the Baha’is if they tried to escape.  Somehow the US Embassy found out about the devious plan and contacted President Eisenhauer who contacted the Shah with the warning the if anything happened to the Bahá’ís, US aid to Iran would be cut off!  The Shah ordered soldiers to protect the Bahá’i homes.  Tim said that he found this out thirty years later.  The President had kept his promise. 

 

Tim also shared about how his mother hosted Louis Gregory for three months when Tim was twelve years old.  Louis Gregory made a big impression on Tim’s life.  Also, David and Joy Earl, an interracial couple in Detroit who suffered through much racial hatred directed toward them.  Joy had a miscarriage due largely to the stress of prejudice she received from her white neighbors who “didn’t want a n____ baby in their neighborhood.  Joy was a mentor to Tim.