Community Remembers ‘Following Francis’ Founder, Dr. Carol Weyland Conner

Dr. Carol Weyland Conner, 80, a psychologist, teacher, and the murshida, or spiritual director, of Sufism Reoriented (sufismreoriented.org) an American spiritual school founded in 1952 by Meher Baba that honors all spiritual traditions and the essential unity of all life—passed away peacefully at her home in Walnut Creek, California on April 22, 2023. In recent years Dr. Conner won national prominence and numerous civic awards for the volunteer service programs she founded, Following Francis and White Pony Express, which seek to help those on the margins of society move closer to the mainstream.

“There is a simple solution that can end the problems of hunger and marginalization for good—a new paradigm: voluntary shared abundance,” she explained in a talk to Women Forward International in 2021. “In this model of life, responsibility for helping the family of man is assumed by everyone, or in the phrase the White Pony Express often uses, ‘All of us taking care of all of us.’ The idea of ‘shared abundance’ has caught on like wildfire and the program has never stopped growing.”

The daughter of Rudolph Harry Weyland, a musician and educator, and LaJune Arletta Wendt Weyland, an elementary school teacher, Dr. Conner studied English literature at the University of California in Berkeley, French literature at the Sorbonne in Paris, and medieval studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The sudden grave mental illness of her older brother caused her to switch her field to psychology in the hope that she could aid him and others so afflicted. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., in 1976. After teaching for several years at the George Washington University School of Medicine, Dr. Conner went into private practice as a therapist, practicing for twenty-five years in Walnut Creek, California, during which time she was also a volunteer counselor with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in nearby San Francisco.

Dr. Conner learned of Meher Baba and Sufism Reoriented in the mid-1970s, joining Sufism Reoriented in 1979. In 2001, her predecessor, Dr. James MacKie, appointed her as the murshida, or spiritual director of the group, a position she held for nearly twenty-two years until her passing.

Dr. Conner was tireless in her efforts to care for the underserved, downtrodden and homeless, who she saw as her own family. An important part of her work has been to develop new models of community service, particularly in Contra Costa County, Calif., Washington, D.C., and Myrtle Beach, S.C., where Dr. Conner maintained homes. Programs she started on a small scale with volunteers from Sufism Reoriented have been enthusiastically embraced by the wider community.

In Contra Costa County, she formed White Pony Express in 2013, to gather surplus fresh food from markets and restaurants and deliver it to service agencies that feed the hungry in the county. White Pony Express is now one of California’s largest food rescue programs and distributes new clothing and other goods to the underserved.
In 2018, Dr. Conner arranged for White Pony Express to gather and transport food, clothing and envelopes of cash on a regular basis to the survivors of the devastating Camp Fire in Butte County, California, for many months. This involved 182 volunteers making over 90 trips, each round trip of eight hours, to the disaster area, delivering over 58,000 pounds of food and more than 1,800 articles of clothing to displaced community members. For this work, she was given the prestigious Andrus Award for community service by California AARP in 2019. More recently, owing directly to Dr. Conner’s concern for the people of Ukraine, White Pony Express began gathering and shipping emergency supplies of non-perishable food, clothing, and medical supplies to Ukrainian refugees in Europe.

Dr. Conner also founded Following Francis in 2011, inspired by the values of Francis of Assisi and his ideal of universal brotherhood. Following Francis volunteers staged musical dramas on the life and universal message of Francis, colorful Umbrian-style outdoor “faires” and other activities for nearly 15,000 children, first in Bay Area cities and eventually in Washington, D.C., New York City and Baltimore. Dr. Conner conceived these programs with the aim of nurturing feelings of kindness, courage, and self-worth in children through loving experiences that would nourish their hearts. In Washington, D.C., Following Francis volunteers serve the local community by beautifying historic Meridian Hill Park in the Columbia Heights neighborhood, hanging flower baskets mounted on park lamp posts and picking up trash daily. Volunteers also distribute over six tons of fresh groceries weekly and 40,000 diapers monthly to underserved D.C.-area families. The nonprofit organization has also provided nearly $100,000 in donated shelf-stable food, medical and school supplies, diapers and infant supplies, and hygiene bags for Ukraine relief.

In Myrtle Beach, Dr. Conner’s Following Francis program has organized weekly summer beach outings for children in underserved areas of the city, as well as field trips to area attractions and a five-day excursion to Washington, D.C. The program distributes food, clothing, bicycles and beds to these families. Following Francis has also worked with local public schools in the Los Angeles area to provide immediately needed groceries, meals, and clothing.

Dr. Conner has been honored with the Jefferson Award from San Francisco TV station KPIX, the “Threads of Hope” Award from Diablo Magazine, she was named a Hometown Hero by the Contra Costa Times, and on April 8, 2023, two weeks before her passing, she was given the Soroptimist Ruby Award for Women Helping Women.

According to Dr. Conner, “We have reached a point in universal history where mankind, as a whole, can begin to realize the fundamental truth that we all share one life. Human brotherhood is not something to aspire to—it is the central fact of our existence. In this beautiful world we share, love knows all, does all, and is the most powerful force in the universe.”

Dr. Conner’s husband Gary, a retired attorney and former executive director of White Pony Express, passed away last year. She is survived by her stepchildren Marika Beck and Robin Conner; grandchildren Talin, Jonah, Cora, Sophie, and Vivani; her niece Lara Weyland; grandniece Reina and grandnephew Nico.