Dr. David S. Ruhe: Kansas Author
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Duane L. Herrmann, Dr. David S. Ruhe: Kansas Author, bahai-library.com.
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DR. DAVID S. RUHE, KANSAS AUTHOR

Duane L. Herrmann
2003

David S. Ruhe was born 3 Jan 1919, the second of eight children, to Percy Bot & Amy S Ruhe
of Allentown, Pennsylvania. He received B.S. & M.S. bioscience degrees at Michigan State college
and his MD from Temple University School of Medicine in 1941. In 1986 he also received an
honorary Sc. D degree from the latter.
Though his initial research was in tropical medicine with a focus on malaria, he specialized in
public health with an emphasis in audio visual communication. He eventually became a Senior
Surgeon in the US Public health Service, then director of the Medical film Institute of the
Association of American Medical colleges. He came to Kansas in 1954 and founded the
Department of Medical Communication at the Kansas University School of Medicine of which he
became a full professor and Chairman.
He published a book on the ongoing research, viewing and appraisal of medical films,
specifically relating to psychiatry, psychology and mental health in medical communication, as well
as many professional papers over the decades of his professional career. He also produced a large
number of medical films for educational purposes.
Dr. Ruhe married Margaret Kunz on 7 Sept 1940 at Urbana, Illinois, with whom he had two
sons, Christopher and Douglas. In 1941, while living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania he entered the
Bahá’í community. His wife had grown up in the Bahá’í community after her mother accepted the
Bahá’í Faith in 1916. Her mother was the daughter of a clergyman of the Reformed Church of
Switzerland. Her conversion was the result of a Unitarian minister in Urbana, Illinois where she
and her husband were living while he taught at the University of Illinois (a famous physicist, Dr
Kunz had invented the first photoelectric cells). The Unitarian minister had met ‘Abdu’l-Baha, the
son of the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith while he was in the US in 1912. The effect galvanized his
being and he conveyed that to his congregation. Some left the church with him and began the
Bahá’í community of Urbana. Ruhe’s future mother-in-law was among them.
In 1942 Ruhe was elected to the governing council of the local Bahá’í community of New
Orleans, Lousiana. Bahá’í elections are conducted in a spirit of prayer, with no campaigning or
nominations, so being elected is oftentimes a great surprise; they are essentially a vote of
confidence in an individual’s ability. He served on various such councils, called Spiritual
Assemblies, as his professional career took him from place to place.
In February 1954 his career brought him to Kansas. Five years later, much to the surprise and
delight of fellow Bahá’ís in Kansas, he was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá’ís of the United States, a position to which he was re-elected for the next three decades. He
was the first member of the Kansas Bahá’í community to be so elected. From the year he arrived in
the state, he had been elected delegate from Kansas to the National Bahá’í Convention, so he was
known on a national level of the Bahá’í community. He continued to be elected delegate every year
while he lived in Kansas.
In 1959 Horace Holly, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the
United States, was asked to serve at the Baha World Center in Haifa, Israel. This created a vacancy
on the membership of the National Spiritual Assembly. When a bi-election was held to fill that
vacancy, Ruhe was elected to fill it.1. He attended the weekend meetings of the National Assembly
from his home in Kansas. After election of the National Assembly in 1963, he was elected its
Secretary. This meant leaving Kansas to assume responsibility for the Office of the Secretariat of
the National Assembly whose offices are just north of Chicago, in Wilmette, Illinois. The family
regretted leaving Kansas, but Ruhe later reflected, “The five years as National Secretary were
challenging but delightful.”2.
For five years he served the American Bahá’í community in this office, then in 1968 he was
elected to the international Bahá’í council, the Universal House of Justice. This council coordinates
the affairs of the entire Bahá’í world community. This election necessitated moving to Haifa, Israel
where the Bahá’í World Center is located. He served there until he retired in 1993.
The quarter of a century of his membership on this council saw tremendous changes in the
Bahá’í world community. Its size went from several hundred thousand members to several million.
Large areas of the globe where only a few believers were scattered here and there, now had large,
thriving Bahá’í communities. At the beginning, many believers could only dream of efforts to
improve the societies in which they lived, at the end thousands of such efforts had been initiated.
The number of schools blossomed, especially in areas with no education for children, medical and
agricultural projects proliferated. Major volumes of scripture were translated and published. And
several major construction projects were undertaken: continental houses of worship were
constructed in Panama, India, and Samoa, and most significantly, the seat of the House of Justice
was constructed in Haifa. This was the first major step of the development of the international
infrastructure at the Bahá’í World Center since the 1940s. Successive stages involved the building
of an archival facility, a research center, an office building, hospitality centers for guests and
monumental gardened terraces climbing one half mile up the slopes of Mount Carmel. One could
say that the Bahá’í community had changed beyond recognition. As a member of the international
council, Dr. Ruhe exercised a major executive role.
When Dr. Ruhe retired from service at the Bahá’í World Center, he and his wife settled in New
York State to be near their children. In retirement he did not rest. He completed several books he
had started decades before and, with son Doug, founded a video production company to supply
videos for the American Bahá’í community. Some of these have been broadcast on cable and
commercial networks breaking new ground in supplying information to the public about the Bahá’í
Faith.
While living in Haifa, he conceived and wrote his first book to be published on a Bahá’í
subject. It is titled, Door of Hope: A Century of the Bahá’í Faith in the Holy Land. The publisher
is George Ronald in England. It was released in 1983. He explained the reason for the book as
being that, “historically, the Holy Land has exercised an influence upon human affairs out of all
proportion to its diminutive size, and without doubt it will continue to do so in the future. To
‘Akká, ‘the silver city,’ Mount Carmel, the ‘mountain of God,’ and their environs come ever-
increasing streams of Bahá’í pilgrims and visitors seeking their spiritual and administrative home.
It is hoped that this book will be of particular use and interest to them, to answer the questions of
the curious, to enrich pilgrim days, to provoke wide reading of original sources, and to be a
perennial reference on this ‘most holy land.’”3.
This book “is much expanded in content and detail,” beyond an earlier volume titled, Bahá’í
Holy Places at the World Center, produced for Bahá’ís in 1968. That year the arrival of
Bahá’u’lláh (Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith) to the shores of the Holy Land a century before,
was commemorated. That earlier book was part of that effort. At the time of His arrival, ‘Akká
was the most infamous penal colony of the Ottoman Empire. Sentence there was effectively, for
most prisoners, a sentence of death. It was the final destination of the series of exiles which
Bahá’u’lláh had endured.
These exiles and the life sentence of imprisonment had begun when Bahá’u’lláh had accepted
the teachings of a religious reformer in His native Persia. Bahá’u’lláh had been born to a noble
family and could have lived a life of ease and luxury with the court. Instead, for His beliefs, He was
stripped of His wealth, social position, imprisoned and exiled.
His exile to ‘Akká made the land holy to Bahá’ís as it was to Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Door of Hope draws on recent scholarship and archeological research, newly translated documents
and archival photographs to document the sites with special significance for Bahá’ís. Its scholarly
treatment for these sites was new for the Bahá’í community.
The structure of the narrative of the text was also new. He explained that the text, “is place-
related and does not follow a strict chronology, its narrative necessarily moving forwards and
backwards in time as the place of the drama changes.”4.
In the text Ruhe skillfully blends his narrative with excerpts from source documents when
giving the history of a site. An informative excerpt from the chapter on Mazraih, the first house
where Bahá’u’lláh lived after the Ottoman governor and Muslim clergy of ‘Akká made it clear that
no one would enforce the firman of the Sultan requiring perpetual house arrest: “The House
remained in the possession of the descendants of Muhammad Safwat during the period of the
British Mandate. Then, about 1928, Mrs. Lillian Mc Neill came to the Holy Land with her husband,
a Brigadier-General who had been with Allenby in the conquest of Palestine. Mrs. McNeill had
been a childhood friend in Malta of the English princess who became Queen Marie of Rumania.
She relates that when she was making a journey of discovery in the area below Nahariya and
travelling ‘...across country where then only the roughest of tracks existed, I came upon an old
house, neglected, some parts almost ruinous...”5.
The reference to Queen Marie of Rumania gains meaning when one realized that she was the
first monarch to accept the message of Bahá’u’lláh. Mrs. McNeill was also a believer.
The volume is lavishly illustrated with period photos which, unfortunately because of their age,
are all black and white. Most had never been published before. As well as these “new”
photographs, most of the information in it is also found no where else. The book is now
indispensable for every person who wishes to learn about the sites in the Holy Land associated with
the Bahá’í Faith.
Ruhe’s second book on a Bahá’í topic is a biography of the early life of Bahá’u’lláh. While in
prison for His beliefs, He received a vision that He was to be a Messenger of God. The message
was one of utter simplicity: “The earth is one country and mankind its citizens.” Simple though it
sounds, its consequences are far-reaching and will result in great changes at all social levels before
its realization. And, He said, its realization would come to pass for it is the will of God. Since this
announcement in the nineteenth century social upheavals have occurred which have increasingly
removed one barrier and another that have divided the human race for centuries. One of the first of
these was slavery. At the same time new institutions and organizations have been created to
facilitate global interaction among people, the United Nations and the internet are two examples.
Robe of Light, published in 1994, is the first of a projected series of long fruition, begun even
before the author came to Kansas. It was started in 1949 and he continued to work on it while in
Kansas. At that time there was no documentary biography of the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith.
Since that time others have appeared, but this one remains unique in that it includes vast
autobiographical references found in the Writings (some 21,000 documents) of Bahá’u’lláh
Himself. Ruhe had access to these while living in Haifa where the International Bahá’í Archives
are located.
Ruhe explained the reason behind this book, “Nothing is more important than to explore the
Great Lives which periodically have released man from each gradual new dilemma produced by his
own social evolution. In any age the Supreme Souls born among mankind provide man’s essential
understanding of himself and his relation to God.”6.
Describing the role of these individuals he further explained, “Through the different
expressions of spiritual genius of each Manifestation of God, man’s primary and innate needs are
perceived and the profound ideas required for the creation of a new age, with growth into another
great cycle of human progress, are put forth with divine power.”7. This is the role he believes has
been fulfilled by Bahá’u’lláh. The full title of the book is: Robe of Light: The Persian Years of the
Supreme Prophet, Bahá’u’lláh: 1817-1853.
Future volumes were planned to cover the years in Baghdad and Constantinople, each a
successive stage in the exile from his native land. These books may well be reference points for
future generations of Bahá’ís and others wanting to know more about how a religion begins in
historical times.
Dr. David Ruhe’s professional and Bahá’í publications have added a luster to the literature of
Kansas of which few people are aware. It is hoped that this paper will relieve that to some degree.
David Ruhe Bibliography

Articles:

A Highway to Enduring Peace, World Order, December 1944, p. 282.
The Bahá’í Basis for human Relations, World Order, May 1947, p. 46.
Religion for Adults, World Order, November 1948, p. 253.
A New Evolution: Religious Bonding for World Unity, Journal of Bahá’í Studies, 1995

Books:

Door of Hope: A Century of the Bahá’í Faith in the Holy Land, (Oxford: George Ronald) 1983, rev
1986.
Films for the Teaching of Social and Environmental Factors of Medicine, (New York: Asso. of
American Medical Colleges) 1951.
Films in the Cardiovascular Diseases, vol I & II, (New York: Asso. of American Medical Colleges)
1953-54.
Robe of Light: the Persian Years of the Supreme Prophet, (Oxford: George Ronald) 1994.
Selected Films for Medical Training: a Suggested Basic Motion Picture Library, (Chicago: Asso. of
American Medical Colleges) 1965.

Films:

The Bahá’í Community: A World Presence, (Sidcorp) n.d.
Bahá’í Youth, (Sidcorp) n.d.
A Case of Hypoglycemic Crises of Unknown Origin, (KU College of Health Sciences) 1959.
A Case of North American Blastomycosis Treated with Amphotericin B (KU College of Health
Sciences) 1961.
A Case of Unexplained Bleeding from the Upper Gastrointestinal Tract (The School ) 1958.
Challenge: Science Against Cancer, (Canada: National Film board) 1950.
Emergency Airway Crisis and Action, (Pfizer) 1960.
An Epidemic of Histoplasmosis Associated with an Urban Starling Roost (US Communicable
Disease Center) n.d.
Le Fe Bahá’í, (Sidcorp) n.d.
Left Colectomy for Carcinoma of the Rectosigmid (The Center) 1956.
The Mississippi Valley Disease: Histoplasmosis, (Highroads to Health) 1956.
The Power of Prayer, (Sidcorp) n.d.
The Power of Race Unity, (Sidcorp) n.d.
The Spiritual Road, (Sidcorp) n.d.
The Struggle for Black and White Unity (Sidcorp) n.d.
Symbols of the Spirit, (Sidcorp) n.d.
Temporalis Muscle Transfer for Lagophtalmos (KU College of Health Sciences) 1963.
Tracheotomy and Cricothyrotomy: a Study of Emergency Methods, (Churchill-Wexler Film
Productions) 1965.
Unity and Diversity, (Sidcorp) n.d.
The Vena Caval Bronchovascular Triad, (KU College of Health Sciences) 1961.
We are One, (Sidcorp) n.d.

Sidcorp Videos (www.sidcorptv.com)

Bahá’í Community: World Presence
Bahá’í Youth
Le Fe Bahá’í
The Power of Prayer
The Power of Race Unity
The Spiritual Road
The Struggle for Black and White Unity
Symbols of the Spirit
Unity and Diversity
We are One
Notes:
1. Margaret & David Ruhe, correspondence with the author, nd, postmarked 21 December 1987.
2. David S. Ruhe correspondence to the author, 29 April 2003.
3. Ruhe, David S. M.D., Door of Hope: A Century of the Bahá’í Faith in the Holy Land (Oxford,
George Ronald) 1983, p.3.
4. ibid. p.1.
5. ibid. pp.91-92.
6. Ruhe, Robe of Light: The Persian Years of the Supreme Prophet, Bahá’u’lláh (Oxford, George
Ronald) 1994, p.4.
7. ibid. p.1.

Letters to and from Dr. Ruhe

Letter from myself to David Ruhe [some personal details removed]

Thanks so much for your response, corrections and additions. It is a pleasure working with you like
this. I am so glad you are willing and able to help. I feel much better when I can get the most direct
information possible. I did much of the work on it between phone call interruptions, so I’m sure
some editing will be helpful.

I have two questions: 1.) what year did you come to Kansas?

And, 2.) I don’t understand the comment that: “Door of Hope, on the Holy Land, is number four in
the series.” Series of SEVEN? Have I missed five of them? If Robe of Light is number one, where
are numbers 2, 3, 5, 6, & 7? Have I missed them, or are they waiting for their turn at the publisher?
Would you have time to provide the title of each one and a sentence of the content? I don’t want to
leave anything out. If some of them have been published (and I am ignorant, I am very sorry) could
you give the country and year of publication?

I have attached the revised version of the paper. If there’s any additional information that you feel
would be helpful, please feel free to add it. …
------

his reply [some personal details removed]

29 April ’03

Dear Duane Herrmann:

You have been bold as a biographer, but I have edited your “Kansas Author” detail and apologize
for the delay in feeding it back to you.

Good to hear of the continuing Baha’i activity in Kansas! Keep up the good work! Everywhere our
communities need an expressive publicist who knows his countryside, his friends and his
opportunities. to you, all hail! Abdu’l-Baha left His footprints in Kansas – good that you and
others keep the memories warm.

Here’s to the Kansas Authors club and your membership in it. Our years in Kansas and at K.U.
were happy ones, and you are keeping the pot boiling in your way.

…

Warm greetings and salutations to the Baha’is of Topeka, Lawrence, K.C. where ever you may
travel. We keep reasonably well and as every plugging away for the Faith.

Your biog of Rose Hilty shows your gift as historiographer it seems.

Dave & Meg Ruhe
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-- Dr. David S. Ruhe: Kansas Author (Used by permission of the curator)