by Sally Baker
In the few Colby photographs that capture Sid Farr '55, he always seems to be standing in the background. That's him, applauding a donor at a building dedication, cheering on a team, chuckling at an aside from a trustee. Center stage has never been his arena. But Colby insiders-especially those who have worked with him in the College's administration-know that for more than three and a half decades, Farr has played a critical part in Colby's success. And when he retired last month-quietly, of course, without fanfare-the College marked the end of an era.
"Nobody is irreplaceable. Except Sid," said Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Randy Helm, who worked with Farr for seven years. "You have to grow a Sid. It's like growing a redwood forest. It takes a generation to produce a Sid Farr."
A Mainer through and through, Farr was born in Portland, reared in Orrington and graduated from Bangor High School. He was the only child of parents who stressed the importance of education and aimed him toward college early on. In Farr's junior year of high school, Colby admissions director Bill Bryan '48 visited Bangor and spent half an hour with Farr.
"I thought he was a wonderful man and that Colby must be a wonderful college to have such a man representing it," Farr remembered. Shortly after meeting Bryan, Farr got a personal tour of Colby from a Bangor friend and College trustee, Gus D'Amico '28.
"It was love at first sight," Farr said. "This was the new College, there weren't even any big trees yet. But when I saw Colby I saw a beautiful college and a wonderful opportunity to come and learn something." It didn't hurt that D'Amico introduced Farr to President J. Seelye Bixler-in Bixler's study, no less-and to Dean of Men George Nickerson '24. The young man was firmly ensnared by the college to which he would devote his working life. He applied for admission nowhere else.
Farr enrolled in 1951 and, predictably, was elected vice president of his freshman class. In his four years on Mayflower Hill-in addition to completing a rigorous triple major in history, government and economics and being elected to the Blue Key senior honorary society-Farr served two more terms as a class officer (sophomore vice president and senior treasurer). He was a member of the Glee Club and vice president of the International Relations Club, was Lambda Chi Alpha secretary and co-chaired the senior commencement committee. Then there was ROTC (four years), the captaincy of the Drill Team, service as a head resident and, in his spare time, the Outing Club, baseball team, and chapel ushers. When a doctor advised him not to play baseball in his senior year, Farr went to see music professor Peter Re and volunteered to accompany the Glee Club on piano.
Piano?
"Sandy Doolittle [Hunt '58] and I played a pretty ambitious Christmas concert; we sat facing each other at two pianos," Farr recalled with a laugh. "I know I surprised Dr. Bixler. I'd been at Colby for three years, and he had no idea I knew how to play."
Farr was commissioned an Air Force officer on graduation day, and he spent just over four years in the service. He gave some thought to becoming a career officer, and he considered going into business-there were opportunities, he says. But after his great friend and mentor, alumni secretary Ellsworth "Bill" Millett '25, teamed up with development director Ed Turner to offer Farr a co-assistantship in their departments, Farr asked himself: "What do you want to look back on when you retire? Selling widgets or flying airplanes or helping kids?" And for Farr, the question was purely rhetorical. He began work at Colby on April 4, 1960-Bixler's birthday. One of his first tasks was to help Millett deliver a birthday cake to the president's home.
Farr soon earned a reputation for tackling anything that needed to be done-and cheerfully. Dean of the College Earl Smith, who joined the Colby administration in 1962 as assistant to news office director Richard Dyer, remembers the days when Farr single-handedly saw to it that the Alumnus-as Colby magazine then was known-reached its readers. "He used to package the magazines and apply the labels and carry them to the post office," Smith said. "That was fine with him. It was important."
As Millett's assistant Farr helped bridge the gap some alumni saw between College Avenue and Mayflower Hill.
"Sid represented continuity," said Robert E. L. Strider, who succeeded Bixler as Colby president in the fall of 1960. "He did have a foot on the old campus, even though he never attended classes there. He had an affinity for communicating with people from that era. Part of that may be because he worked so closely with Bill Millett, who was the embodiment of the old campus."
"I don't think we would have made the transition from the old campus to the new campus without Sid Farr-at least not in the minds of the people who identified themselves as 'old campus people,'" said Jack Deering '55. "There was a perception that the new campus wasn't 'us'-a real gulf. Sid was the link. He brought people along."
When Millett retired in 1966, Farr was promoted to alumni secretary. "Following Bill Millett was like following God," Deering said. "But Sid Farr did it and did a great job. I cannot imagine anyone else who could have."
In 1971, with college aid programs growing increasingly complex and costs rising, Administrative Vice President Ralph "Roney" Williams '35 tapped Farr to lead the College's financial aid and career counseling offices. Farr held the position for seven years and remembers it fondly because of the contact it afforded him with students. But it was a tough job that frequently called for Farr to work late into the night. "It had to be done right," Farr said. "I was lucky to have the help of my dear wife, Sheila, who spent many nights at home with our children while I worked." (The Farrs have two children, Sally Farr Welch and Scott Farr.)
Despite his attention to career and family, Farr found time to serve the Waterville community and further his own education. He was a member of Rotary, a director of the Chamber of Commerce and the Boys Club/Girls Club, a representative to Waterville's city council and a member of a state task force on governmental reorganization. Along the way he earned a master's in political science and an M.B.A. from the University of Maine. And he was extraordinarily generous in his volunteer service to Colby in these years, for which he was awarded a Colby Brick in 1972.
Farr succeeded Roney Williams as Colby's secretary of the corporation in 1976; two years later Strider named him vice president for development. Strider credits Farr with taking Colby's development effort to a new level of success.
"Until this most recent flurry of large gifts, Sid was more responsible than anybody else for the largest personal gift the College had ever had-the Arey gifts in the 1960s that enabled us to renovate the old life sciences building," Strider said, adding that Farr showed his aptitude for development in his promotion of the Ford Foundation challenge in 1962. "You cannot overestimate the role Sid played in this effort because of his relationship with the alumni."
Deering says Farr was effective as a development officer because of his patience and his belief in his task. "People who are asked for money are like monkeys: they'll drop from limb to limb. Sid out-listens them. He sits there and is the embodiment of Colby College. Sid'll out-wait you. He'll kill you. You think he'll go away. He won't. And the memory of his notes, his persistence and his patience is like a tattoo-you can't get it off. A lot of the people who give to the new campaign will give because of that memory of their visits with Sid."
Farr's message was easy to swallow. "When I ask someone to help Colby," he explained, "I'm not asking for myself. I'm asking because I want to see the students helped. The students and the faculty are the core of everything."
Farr stepped down as development vice president in 1984, and until his retirement in December he was alumni secretary; he'll continue as board secretary until his term expires this spring. Although Farr insists that he does not intend to separate himself from the College in retirement ("Not as long as I can breathe," he says), his departure leaves a void.
"Probably nobody loves Colby as much as Sid Farr does," said Helm. "We're losing somebody who, as a professional administrator at this college, has virtually every talent that anybody would need to draw on for almost any job that we do. Sid has done everything and done everything well. And we're losing his tremendous integrity. Some alumni out there look at Colby and wonder what foolishness those folks on the Hill are up to now-what kind of craziness are the students up to, what is that faculty doing, and are those administrators off their rockers? But then they'll remember, Sid Farr still loves that college and Sid Farr still works there, so there must be something right about the place."
Strider remembers speaking to an alumni couple in Florida who questioned him closely about a new policy he wanted to implement. The woman turned to Farr and said, "Do you approve of what the president is planning to do?" Farr said he did. "Fine," the alumna said, "then we approve too."
"It's amazing the number of people out there who see Colby through his eyes-who want to see it through his eyes," said Earl Smith. "He's shown them that Colby is still very much like it was when they were here; it's still a good place full of good people."
"Sid has a kind of loyalty to the institution that you can't buy," Strider said. "He would do anything for the College-and he's done a great many of them already."
Typically, Farr deflects the thanks and praise. He insists it's been his pleasure, thank you.
"I can honestly say that if I had my life to live over again, I would do exactly the same thing," Farr said. "There are some disappointments along the way, but that happens in anybody's career. I retire happy to see what's happened here and excited by the wonderful level of talent and dedication that is here today. I'm happy I've been permitted to be part of a great community, grateful for the fact that I've been able to work for the College and that I've met some wonderful people. You just can't beat Colby people. They're the best."