Joan and Wayne Anderson by Wayne Anderson
Joan K. & Wayne G. Anderson Their Baháʼí Faith Experience – 1972-2020 By Wayne Anderson
Joan K. (Wetzel) Anderson and Wayne G. Anderson were married at the beginning of their senior year at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, at the Collegiate United Methodist Church on August 23, 1970. although their families never seemed to evangelize the philosophy, allowing them to have a sense of God more than religion. The church was always simply a connective bond to the community. They found each other while socializing within the diverse, international university population, learning for the first time there were so many other cultures and always believing in the equality of all. At the time of their meeting, Joan was living with a mid-eastern roommate, and Wayne was housing with a Nigerian and Biafran at the height of Nigeria’s Biafra war.
In 1971, toward the end of the Vietnam war, Wayne received a draft notice and “chose” to “join” the U.S. Air Force. Through a fortuitous series of events which might qualify as a calling, Wayne was assigned as a broadcast producer/cinematographer with the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) in Keflavik, Iceland. Joan was allowed to join him, and they set up an apartment in the nearby town of Keflavik. They loved living and traveling in Iceland and enjoyed the diversity of the country and its people. (Iceland is an island, the size of Iowa with a 1972 population of, 200,000.)
In 1972, while producing a children’s TV show, Wayne was introduced to Ella Gudmansdoter who was a translator for Icelandic National Television. They became good friends; Ella taught both Wayne and Joan to speak Islandic. Ella introduced Wayne to an author and Hand of the Cause, William Sears, whom he interviewed. After that meeting he and Joan quickly adopted the principles of the Baháʼí Faith. As Ella was a Baháʼí, they struck up a close relationship and in that same year announced their newly found faith. It was not a stretch from their upbringing and only logical. They met Bahá’ís from all over the world as the Icelandic International Airport offered a stopover for many traveling Baháʼís. It was an enlightening experience in so many ways.
In 1974 Wayne was reassigned as a cinematographer/film editor for USAFE (United States Armed Forces Europe) to a small multi-service base in Wiesbaden, Germany. His assignments required a lot of travel to document Air Force special events and training, taking him from a U.S. sponsored orphanage in Rovaniemi, Finland, to training missions in Great Britain, Spain, Morocco, etc. Although these trips were dynamic and extraordinary, Joan could not travel with him. When they arrived, Joan was close to having their first child, Amaryllis, and with Wayne out of the picture so much, she would travel the 12-minute bus ride from their apartment in Naurod to Wiesbaden to meet with friends. In Wiesbaden she found a number of other Baháʼís whom she started traveling with and in 1975, with Ama on her back, visiting other countries and, of course, the Baháʼí House of Worship in Hofheim am Taunus. When Wayne could get away, he joined her and took many photos of the Temple. We had a number of wonderful experiences meeting other Baháʼís from Europe, Scandinavia, Africa, and the Mid-East.
Finally, Wayne’s tour of duty was at a close, and rather than stay in a “dream job” in the Air Force, they chose to pack up Ama and return to civilian life in Iowa.
In 1976, after several months of reorienting themselves, they landed in Marion, Iowa where Wayne resumed his broadcast career as a cinematographer/videographer/editor for commercial and documentary production for then WMT-TV. (So many stories). In 1977, Alex graced them with his birth, and they continued connecting with newly found Baháʼí friends not only locally, but in Des Moines and other Iowa communities. There were nearly three hundred at that time statewide. It was obvious they were in the right spot. They attended Bahá’í functions and Holy Days, said prayers together, and encouraged their kids to be open and curious. Joan was very active and close to the Sieglings, Naaktgeborens, Diane Findlay, Marge and Bill Willis, Jan King, Linda Coulter-Jones and Jim Jones, Doug & Gail Koch, Becky Jensen & Mark Mc Dowell, Gary & Nina Scott, Karla Strom, Wendy & Josh Yoder, to name just a few.
She helped design and grow the Bahá’í children’s programs and was spiritually and physically active within the Cedar Rapids and Marion communities. In 1982, Azure was born and they moved to a larger home near Alburnett where she continued working, now with the Linn County Bahá’í programs as well. She made a number of Islamic friends and notably was honored with a gold leafed copy of the Quran by the Imam of the Mother Mosque in Cedar Rapids. She met so many inspirational Bahá’ís over the years, including Ruth Moffett, Henrietta Kroll, and again, William Sears.
Spurred on through the Bahá’í teachings of searching the self, Wayne’s spiritual philosophy shifted away from organized religion to direct spiritual connection. However, Joan’s beliefs never wavered, and they had many discussions on the role of religion as necessary to galvanize communities and an individual’s personal connection with God. Wayne formally stepped away from the faith in the mid-1980s, still keeping the precepts of the faith in his heart. True to the Bahá’í teachings of acceptance, they both attended nearly all the local Bahá’í functions. Joan also attended several regional (maybe national) conferences. Although she never openly pressed herself into service, she was always available when called. She rarely said “no”.
Joan and Wayne wanted a formal Bahá’í service at her passing on June 29, 2020, but it was during the height of the pandemic and time and finances just would not allow. She will soon rest in her butterfly garden, a constant reminder of her commitment to kindness, her family, and rebirth through a life well lived in the service of the Bahá’í Faith.
