A memorial service for the Head of State and father of modern Samoa is to be held at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 28, at the Baha'i House of Worship for the North American Continent in Wilmette, Ill.

His Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili IIHis Highness Susuga Malietoa Tanumafili II, who died at age 94 on May 11, was the first reigning sovereign to officially become a Baha'i. (Queen Marie of Romania embraced the Faith in the early 1900s.) The Malietoa (paramount chief) dedicated the Baha'i House of Worship Samoa in Tiapapata, near Apia, the capital city, in 1984.

Other memorial services to honor the Malietoa are being held in Baha'i Houses of Worship in the United States, Germany, Australia, Africa and Panama.

The Malietoa was one of the longest reigning monarchs in the world. He had been head of state since Samoa gained independence from New Zealand in 1962.

He served the people with "high principles, genuine compassion and personal humility," which characterized "the constancy of his concern for the welfare of all," said a recent statement written by the Universal House of Justice, the international Baha'i governing body.

"The Malietoa lived in a regular neighborhood in a regular house, and not in the official residence," said Mark Scheffer, a Baha'i who, with his wife, Sarah, managed the Samoan House of Worship until recently. "You'd never have known a head of state lived there except for the fale, the house in his front yard that he used for meetings."

"He was very well loved by the people of his country," said Sarah Scheffer. "At one event we attended, he fanned the audience as a gesture of respect. As head of state he oversaw the churches of Samoa. But he also told Samoans that he was a Baha'i."
The Universal House of Justice said the Malietoa's "great interest for well-nigh four decades in the Faith's progress was reflected in the enthusiastic affirmation of his belief whenever the opportunity presented itself."

The memorial at the Wilmette Baha'i House of Worship is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium, followed by a program in Foundation Hall on the lower level.