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Howard John Zitko
(1911-2003)
An Obituary, Tuesday, May 27, 2003
Howard John Zitko, founder of the World
University, died in a nursing home
in Arizona, USA, on November 12, 2003 aged
92.
Zitko was responsible, largely single-handedly, for the creation
of the World University Roundtable, an international learned society that
was, some twenty years later, to create the World
University in Arizona
and, via its Regional Colleges, in Africa, Asia and South Africa
as well. His vision of education was ambitious and all-encompassing, rooted
in an esoteric spiritual consciousness which pervaded everything that he did.
In his pursuit of the World University ideal of a global educational
establishment transcending national and cultural boundaries, Zitko was far
ahead of his time; many of his ideas concerning experiential education have
since passed into the mainstream contexts of the non-traditional, open and
distance education movements in the USA and elsewhere. If his
pioneering achievement was at times acknowledged more by a circle of initiates
rather than by the public at large, this was a reflection of the way his
ideas had come to capture the mind of a generation to such an extent that
they had ceased to be merely the property of a single individual and passed
into common consciousness.
Born on 26 October 1911 and educated at the Universities of
Wisconsin and California, Zitko entered the
Christian ministry in the 1930s in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, later becoming pastor of churches in Hollywood and Huntington
Park, California.
His interest in spiritual matters transcended orthodox Christianity, however,
and he began to become increasingly involved with the Arcane school of
belief, whose chief protagonist was Alice A. Bailey. Other esoteric spiritual
influences acknowledged by Zitko at this time included C.W. Leadbeater
(Theosophy), Max Heindel (Rosicrucianism), Manly P. Hall, Edgar Cayce,
Krishnamurti, Aurobindo and Sivananda. Influenced by these teachings, Zitko
became much involved in Lemurian and Atlantean philosophy, which was at that time
to the forefront of spiritual investigation, and was a leading member of the
Lemurian Fellowship, heading its Midwestern Division. Spurred on by this
research, he produced in 1936 his philosophical masterwork; the Lemurian
Theo-Christic Conception, a complex and extremely wide-ranging work of some
325,000 words outlining in a lucid and cogent manner his credo, and
addressing much that was then at the forefront of spiritual science and
esoteric philosophy. This was presented by the Lemurian Fellowship as a study
course during the 1940s, when it attracted many students, and was
subsequently revised in 1956 and 1979 before publication by the World
University Press. In 1940, Zitko had followed the Conception with the
publication of An Earth-Dweller’s Return, the edited unpublished manuscripts
of the spiritual master Phylos, part of which had been published in 1884 by
the medium Frederick Spencer Oliver as A Dweller on Two Planets. These Zitko
also made available to the public, initially through the Lemurian Press and
later through the World University Press. He was later to author Democracy in
Economics - Streamers of Light from the New World,
World University Insights and New Age Tantra Yoga.
Zitko’s productive activity was crowned in 1946, when, inspired
by the recent foundation of the United Nations, he addressed an audience of
educators and lay members on the winter solstice at the Echo Park Women’s
Club, Los Angeles, outlining the establishment of a world university on a world
scale with a world program that would further the cause of world peace and
understanding. From that meeting a board of thirteen trustees was formed in Los Angeles, resulting in the incorporation of the World
University Roundtable in California on February
24, 1947, as a non-profit religious, educational and charitable corporation
that would work towards the furtherance of the World University
vision. Of these thirteen, comprising spiritual leaders, educators,
naturopaths and others, Zitko was the last to survive, although his colleague
Dr. Norman Walker was to live to the age of 108. It was this board that
inaugurated the Los Angeles Section of the World University
in 1948 with forty instructors and a diverse curriculum; however, the section
was to founder for lack of funding and suitable space a few years afterwards.
The World University movement thus created was
to be described as the “Grandaddy” of all such experiments by Dr Robert
Muller, former secretary-general of the United Nations.
In 1950, the erstwhile First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, endorsed
the World University, praising its world peace
initiatives. With a mind towards expansion, Zitko oversaw the creation of the
World University Association of Schools, which was to embrace numerous
worldwide institutions in the succeeding years. The concept, partly born of
financial necessity, was that in each country the university would grow from
the grass roots rather than according to a centralized plan; in this way
existing schools would affiliate to the World
University and in time work towards Regional College status. In 1952, adherents in
Buenos Aires published a four-page informative bulletin about the World
University and distributed 10,000 copies; this complimented the University’s
own bimonthly journal, eventually entitled Liftoff, which continued in
publication for 56 years from 1947 until its last issue in May-June 2003,
bringing news of the World University to its many adherents around the globe.
From 1947 onwards, an Annual Conference was organized in accordance with the
Roundtable constitution, initially at the Roundtable headquarters, then in
Washington, DC from 1967-75, but subsequently expanding to take in locations
in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The 1970 Conference was held simultaneously
in Nigeria, the Netherlands and the USA; after this Conferences took place
in, amongst other places, Brussels (1992), Rome (1993), England (1996), Bali
(1997), Korea (1979, 1990), India (1987), Canada (1984), Puerto Rico (1994),
Germany (1995), USA (Los Angeles, 1976, Oregon, 1977, Texas, 2000) and St
Lucia (2002). The 2003 Conference had been scheduled for Arizona, but was pre-empted by Zitko’s
death. It was perhaps these Annual Conferences, which brought together
educators from around the world, that were the supreme demonstration of the
strength of support for the World
University movement.
The organization of the Roundtable proceeded with the
appointment of Chief Delegates in each country in which there was
representation (that total rising to more than 80 countries by the close of
the twentieth-century) and the formation of national offices in those
countries beginning with India in 1987 and succeeded by Nigeria and Ghana in
1991, Italy in 1992, Argentina, Greece, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Bangladesh and
others. Membership was by invitation, with each Chief Delegate invited to
nominate individuals of considerable distinction in their fields for the
award of the Cultural Doctorate in their discipline, which honorary award
then brought these individuals into the work of the World University.
In addition ordinary membership of the Roundtable was open to those from all
walks of life who wished to support the endeavor. In time the roll of the
Cultural Doctorate membership was to grow to several hundred, embracing
educators, spiritual and political leaders, business people, writers,
artists, musicians and others. One of the last recipients was the
Governor-General of St Lucia, Dame Pearlette Louisy. In India, the members of the Roundtable were so
numerous as to merit the creation of the “Indian Alumni of the World University” under the chairmanship of
Dr J.J. Bennett in 1988; the roll of this organization stood at 88 in 2001.
Its activities have included the reprinting of Liftoff in Indian languages,
the sponsorship of essay competitions, and the involvement in political,
social and humanitarian projects throughout the sub-continent.
In 1958, the World University Roundtable offices moved to Huntington Park from their former location in Hollywood and Burbank,
in consequence of Zitko’s appointment to a new ministry there. He was to hold
this appointment until 1964, when he devoted himself full-time to the work of
the World University. 1962 had seen former US President Dwight D. Eisenhower advocate a World University
in an address to the Confederation of Organizations of the Teaching
Profession in Stockholm, Sweden, and as a result the World University
received banner headlines in the Los Angeles Times. In 1964, Zitko and the World University
organized a move to Arizona,
where two years later they reached an agreement with the Horizon Land
Corporation to relinquish six hundred acres leased from the State Land
Department. Once it had become clear that a substantial campus was now a real
possibility, the Roundtable trustees organized the new incorporation of the World University
itself in Arizona as an institution of
higher education on December 21, 1967, having registered the Roundtable in Arizona in 1964. This
represented a fulfillment of the original aims of the Roundtable conceived
some twenty years earlier, thus creating a twofold organization comprised of
a spiritual arm (the Roundtable) and an academic arm (the University). 1967
also saw the publication of Michael Zweig’s “The Idea of a World University”
(Southern Illinois University Press) in which the World University
was given honorable mention.
In 1969, after surrendering the lease on their previous land,
the World University
purchased a complex of buildings in Tucson,
to which was added a library, which was to be the University’s home until
1985. That year saw the purchase of the University’s present home, the
80-acre Desert Sanctuary Campus at the foot of the Rincon Mountain Range near
Benson, Arizona,
and two years later, once the move was complete, the Tucson campus was sold. The Desert
Sanctuary Campus had originally been used as a yoga ashram and a school for
disadvantaged young people; now it was adapted for the World University
with the conversion of its nine buildings to provide offices, visitor
accommodation and a substantial library. The library building came to house
what is arguably the finest library on esoteric and spiritual science and
related subjects in the world, consisting of some 25,000 books, manuscripts
and other resources, together with theses that had been submitted for the
cultural doctorate. 2003 had seen a successful restoration project completed
on the library building. The campus, which is of outstanding natural beauty,
also features an Olympic-size swimming pool. Zitko was to make the campus his
home; he received visitors from throughout the world there, and together with
a small staff of volunteers administered the business of the World University without salary, funded by
donations and by the trust that he had established to support the University
in perpetuity. Chief among this staff must be mentioned Zitko’s devoted
Secretary, Dr Jill Overway, an expert in yoga also resident on the campus,
who typed and prepared each edition of Liftoff and handled much in the way of
communications, latterly including messages from around the world via email.
The activities of the University expanded to encompass a
substantial publications arm during the 1970s; as well as Zitko’s writings,
it published works of literary criticism, child development, poetry by the
acclaimed Canadian poet Stephen Gill and the autobiography of impresario
Irwin Parnes.
By the 1990s the World
University was ready to
initiate a series of Regional Colleges, beginning with the North American
Regional College (housed at the Desert Sanctuary Campus) in 1998. This
college published a prospectus of non-traditional experiential and spiritual
studies leading to certificate and diploma awards, with forty-four faculty
members drawn from around the world. Although all courses were offered by
distance learning, some on-campus instruction also took place, and in 2002
programs leading to the award of a research doctorate in association with Zoroastrian College were made generally available
(from which program Dr S.S. Walia was the first to graduate in Energy
Science, following a thesis on the therapeutic qualities of solar energy). In
the following year, the Design, Technology and Management Society initiated
the South African Regional College in Ladismith, although this was to cease
affiliation in 2002 following a change in management of the DTMS. This was to
be followed by the South East Asian Regional College (the World Association
of Integrated Medicine in India),
the West African
Regional College
and World University
Computer Center
(Nigeria) and the Zoroastrian Regional College
(the Zoroastrian College, India). At the time of Zitko’s death, Queen’s University, Bangladesh
(the largest private university in that country) and the Daya Pertiwi
Foundation, Indonesia,
were in the process of seeking Regional
College status.
Some twenty or so schools and other organizations, whilst not
achieving Regional College status, were affiliated or associated with the
World University; these included to name but a few, the University for Human
Goodness in North Carolina, USA, the Vidya Yoga Free University, Brazil,
Ansted University, British Virgin Islands and Malaysia, the International
States Parliament for Safety and Peace, the International Association of
Educators for World Peace, the Academy of Ethical Science, India, and the
Mandingo Academy, New York, USA. Other institutions had formed affiliations
with the World University in earlier years, including notably the
Parthasarathy International Cultural Academy, India, the Accademia Superiore
di Studi di Scienze Naturali e Psicobiofisiche Prof. Ambrosini - Diandra
International University and Academy, Italy, Brazil, Spain and USA, and the
World University of Intercultural Studies, Bulgaria.
A website was set up by the World University
and Roundtable in 1998, and in 2001 this registered 45,784 hits. After the
September 11 attacks, the number of hits snowballed from an average of 1,800
per month to an astonishing 12,959 in the month of those events, suggesting
that a wider audience was turning to the World University
in times of crisis.
Each winter solstice from 1956, commemorating the tenth
anniversary of the foundation of the Roundtable, was designated World
University Day and formed the focus for an outpouring of worldwide messages
to the Desert Sanctuary Campus, sharing in telepathic rapport with the
ceremony conducted there. 2002 saw an unprecedented demonstration of support,
with many messages from around the globe producing what Zitko described as a
“stream of love divine”. In his own words, “there never was a greater
conviction among all...that the World University was linked with a Higher
Authority, cognizant of the dedication expressed by all those who have made
the commitment to support the vision which underlies the New World
Civilization of “Light, Love and Power.” The ceremony had included the
Affirmation of Djwhal Khul the Tibetan, a Message of the Master Phylos and
Zitko’s own keynote address delivered earlier that year at the Annual
Conference in St Lucia.
Zitko was a man of imposing presence and energy, and his
spiritual qualities became quickly apparent in any discourse. He was generous
with his time and encouragement and was an entertaining and thought-provoking
correspondent, sending his review of the year’s events as a Christmas gift
annually. His humanity and warmth were witnessed by the many friends he
counted throughout the entire world, making the Desert Sanctuary Campus a
focus for those who sought an educational and philosophical ideal that transcended
temporal boundaries. One rarely exchanged ideas with him without leaving with
a renewed faith in human nature. He is survived by his three children
Lenodene Muriel, now retired, Terel, owner of the Landmark Furniture Store in
Cottonwood, Arizona,
and a spiritual teacher, Beth Ellen, a professor at Winthrop
University, South Carolina, and
his granddaughter Tiffany, a medical student at North Carolina State
University.
In answer to the question of how he maintained his faith in the
World University in the face of what was at times significant opposition,
including at one point a death threat against his person, Zitko replied
simply, “Serve as selflessly as possible with your eyes on the stars and your
feet on the ground, and let the result take care of itself.”
The Hon. Professor John Kersey
(Founder Member, World University, and Cultural Doctorate Member, World University
Roundtable Vice-Delegate and President, English National Office of the World University)
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