The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TRIBUTE TO FRED FARR” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E1198 on June 12, 1997.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TRIBUTE TO FRED FARR
______
HON. ANNA G. ESHOO
of california
in the house of representatives
Thursday, June 12, 1997
Ms. ESHOO. Mr. Speaker, a few days ago our colleague Sam Farr of California experienced the loss of his father, former State Senator Fred Farr, who passed away at the age of 86. Fred Farr was widely revered as an effective, compassionate leader who fought to improve the lives of Californians from all walks of life through his work in the State Legislature. Fred Farr's greatness emanated from his goodness and he will be sorely missed by those who knew him and benefited from his efforts.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring the life of Fred Farr, and extending our deepest condolences to his son and all his family, and request that the article from the San Jose Mercury News be included in the Congressional Record.
At this time, I recall the poet's words . . . ``and so he passed on and all the trumpets sounded on the other side.''
Fred Farr Was Great Man and Worthy Representative
(By Lee Quarnstrom)
When my friend John Riley heard that former state Sen. Fred Farr had died Tuesday at the age of 86, he said, ``Well, he won't be going to a better place, because Monterey is already paradise.''
John, who was once Fred Farr's neighbor in Carmel, wasn't being facetious. He was, in fact, expressing in his own way his admiration for the man who represented the Monterey Bay region in the California Senate and whose son, Sam, now represents us in the Congress.
Let me get this on the record right now: Fred Farr was a great man.
For a tiny portion of this state, the Monterey Bay area has sent some remarkable people to the capitals of California and the United States. Fred Farr was among the best of them.
My first encounter with him was during a special election more than a quarter century ago. I was a reporter for the Watsonville Register Pajaronian, and Farr, who had been redistricted out of the state Senate, was seeking an Assembly seat that had opened up because the incumbent had died in a traffic accident.
As we motored along Highway I somewhere north of Castroville, where he was scheduled to give a stump speech and shake the voters' hands, Farr looked out across a field of row crops and softly told me, ``There's what I'm proudest of, of all the things I did in the Legislature.''
I asked him what he meant. He explained that he had written the legislation that mandates that sufficient number of portable toilets must be put in the fields when the farmhands who plant and tend and harvest the crops are working.
Before his bill, farm workers had to squat between rows of lettuce or cauliflower--or whatever--when nature called. His bill, he proudly told me, give those men and women who pick our food ``some privacy and dignity when they have to relieve themselves.''
``What a great man!'' I said to myself. And I meant it.
Fred Farr did many things for many people. He saved the Coast Highway through Big Sur when the state Department of Transportation wanted to turn Highway I into a multilane freeway--a deed for which each of us should be eternally grateful.
He helped preserve the stone tower and home of the late and great Carmel poet, Robinson Jeffers. He was a founder of the Tor House Foundation, which helped raise funds so that Jeffers' heirs would not have to sell the house when they needed cash to live on. He was a stalwart liberal during the darkness of the McCarthy era and took stands that caused some Americans to be labeled as Communists.
The last time I saw Farr was when he invited me to lunch in Carmel a few years ago. After our meal he walked me to my car, where I discovered I had a flat tire. He drove me to his gas station and politely asked the mechanic whether he could solve my problem expeditiously. He was not demanding service as a former bigwig, he asked for the mechanic's help simply as the gentleman that he was.
His son Sam told me Tuesday that as his father lay dying, people came to his hospital room not only to pay tribute to Fred Farr, but to touch him, the way people touch those who possess great good souls or notable celebrity.
If there is place where good souls go after the body dies, it will no doubt be more beautiful and probably less crowded that the Monterey Peninsula. If that place exists, Fred Farr will grace it no less than he graced this region he called home and where he died.
____________________
