WordFUL Wednesday - "Farr" Better Man

My Pa-Paw Farr was probably the most gentle and kind man that I have ever known. He was my paternal grandfather. In my whole life, I only saw him upset once. He always, and I mean always, had a smile on his face. He never raised his voice. He loved his family so much. He was a teacher and superintendent of schools. In fact, he was one of the first superintendents in Texas to integrate his schools in the 1960s, even when others weren't doing it. He was known to say that it wasn't right and he didn't care what others thought. In later years, he was a devoted fan of all sports in the local schools. He earned the title of Fan of the Year and rarely missed a game. If he did, he was greatly missed by fellow fans, players and coaches! Recently, a family member recalled an article written about him in our local newspaper shortly after his death. Believe it or not, I never knew about this article. So, my mom got me a copy of it and this is what it said:

"FARR" BETTER MAN TO HAVE KNOWN HIM

During the recent crisis across this nation, one thing should be apparent to all is that Americans are re-evaluating their priorities. The major evaluation is what is important in life, a life that we now all realize can be gone in an instant.

I just had the opportunity to say good-by Thursday to on e of the dearest human beings that I have ever met. Alton Farr was not a close friend of mine, but our paths crossed hundreds of times in trying to follow the Hereford teams. For those that knew Alton, no better model could better represent a good fan. Never critical, always praising, always encouraging, always positive. I guess you would say no better model could be given for life.

In having the opportunity to serve Mauri the past several times as an interim sports writer, I find myself at times trying to second-guess why a coach will make a certain call or why players react the way they do to certain circumstances. Thursday, I realized that the importance of my interim position is to try to feed a sream of positive reinforcement to those individuals, both coaches and players, to continue to do the best that they can and to pick themselves up if they falter and go to the next phase of their life. I guess from this point on, I will always try to cling to a philosopy in life that I will call "Farrism".

I guess that I'll never be an Alton Farr because the challenge is probably more than I can do. But I am a better person for knowing him and if he was an acquaintance of yours, you were also blessed. Like Speedy would say, "he was a good-un".

By Paul Mason
Hereford Brand
Saturday, October 20, 2001

This coming April, he would have turned 95. I will never forget his warm smile, his amazing homemade peach ice cream, or his slapstick humor! He was truly an angel here on Earth and I know he is an even better one up there! I still miss you terribly, Pa-Paw!

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