In a message of tribute, the Universal House of Justice wrote that his “pioneering in the Balearic Islands during the Ten Year Crusade won him the immortal distinction of being designated by the beloved Guardian as a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh. His long life of service to the Cause, including as a dedicated teacher of the Faith and a member of the first National Spiritual Assembly of Spain as well as an Auxiliary Board member in that country, is remembered with deep admiration.”

Additionally, a letter from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States noted his service on international and national Bahá’í committees as a young man in the United States, and adds: “Later, together with his precious wife, Conchita, Charles tirelessly promoted and vigorously protected the nascent Faith in Spain, helping nurture the development of the Administrative Order under difficult conditions. Charles and Conchita spent the remaining decades of their lives in the United States, becoming pillars of community life in Virginia.”

Born in 1927, Charles was part of an active Bahá’í family in Chicago. He was a grandson of Charles and Maria Ioas, who had accepted the Faith in 1898 in Chicago. His father, Monroe, was a brother of Leroy Ioas, a Hand of the Cause.

Officially enrolled as a Bahá’í at age 15, he was an active teacher of the Faith from youth and served on the National Youth Committee 1944–1946. He entered Northwestern University at age 16, completed studies in political science and economics, then earned a law degree from the University of Michigan.

In his 20th year he was appointed to the Inter-America Committee and in 1947 moved to Colombia, at a time when very few Bahá’í communities were established there. His pioneering was interrupted when he was drafted at the beginning of the Korean War into a MASH unit, respecting his Bahá’í status as a non-combatant. At the end of the war he served briefly in Japan as part of the Judge Advocate General Corps.

Charles responded in 1954 to Shoghi Effendi’s call for Bahá’ís to travel to the countries and territories where no Bahá’ís were known to live. In the early part of that year he arrived on Mallorca, and within a few years he met and married Maria “Conchita” Ioas, who in 1956 became the first native of the Balearic Islands to accept the Faith.

Over the years they helped build Bahá’í communities, and served on Local Spiritual Assemblies, on Mallorca and later in Madrid. In 1957 he was a founding member and chairman of the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Iberian Peninsula, and later of Spain’s National Assembly. He also served for a time as an Auxiliary Board member, assisting the Hands of the Cause in their efforts to protect the Faith. During this period, the Spanish government was distrustful of any unknown groups and raided Bahá’í meetings, taking the entire membership of institutions and committees in for questioning. Charles Ioas, as an American and a lawyer, ably explained the Bahá’í approach to loyalty to government and succeeded in defending the Bahá’ís on these occasions.

With three children, the Ioases moved to the United States. Charles maintained his activity in the Faith as well as supporting his wife’s, and he served on the Spiritual Assembly of Mount Vernon from its inception until 2010. In the 1970s through the 1990s, he was elected 10 times to represent northern Virginia as a delegate to the Bahá’í National Convention.

In his later years through 2006, he took part in numerous trips abroad to support Bahá’í communities — mostly visiting Spain, but also spending time in Argentina, El Salvador, Costa Rica, France and Hawaii.

Charles Ioas was preceded in passing by his wife of nearly six decades, Conchita, in 2015. Surviving family members include two daughters, Connie and Lisa; a son, Charles; four grandchildren and a step-grandchild.