Zia Nikubonyad worked for the development of the Baha’i Faith over many decades in Asia, Europe, North and South America. He passed away October 7, 2011, in Cardiff, California, at age 89. He had lived in the San Diego area since the 1980s.

A letter of tribute from the National Spiritual Assembly says in part, “Despite persecution, after a successful career in the land of his birth and having served the Faith with distinction there, he nevertheless persevered. His more recent achievements are no less noteworthy. His travel‑teaching journeys in the Americas and, in his eighth decade, pioneer service in southern Russia, evince such qualities of steadfastness and zeal, combined with personal warmth and knowledge of the Faith that they serve as stirring examples for all of us.”

Ziaollah Nikubonyad Mofrad was born in 1921 in Ashgabat, Soviet Union (now the capital of Turkmenistan), the city of the first Baha’i House of Worship and one of the earliest significant centers of Baha’i community life outside Iran. After his family moved back to Iran he earned a law degree, and his career reached a pinnacle when he was a general in the Iranian Army in command of its Education Branch.

Through several waves of suppression of the Baha’i Faith, he managed to share the Faith with many interested people within Iran, as well as traveling to Europe, Japan, South America, various places in the Middle East and the Soviet Union to support Baha’i communities.

In the wake of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Zia left the country in 1981 and settled in the United States.

In the San Diego area he was an enthusiastic teacher of the Faith, facilitating discussion weekly at Sunday morning fireside gatherings at the San Diego Baha’i Center and welcoming several inquiring souls into the Faith.

At age 73, only a few years after sustaining a stroke, Zia answered the call for pioneers to assist the development of newly reopened Baha’i communities of the former Soviet Union. He took long-term trips to the Chechen region of Russia in 1995 and 1997, and helped establish Local Spiritual Assemblies and deepen the knowledge of the many new members in the teachings of Baha’u’llah.