Robert (Bob) James Farley, 89, died peacefully in Santa Monica, California, on the 2nd of October 2012.
Bob was born in Hutchinson on April 14, 1923, the son of James Newton and Elizabeth Martin Farley. Bob graduated from Hutchinson High School in 1940 and attended Hutchinson Junior College for a year. He then entered the University of Kansas at Lawrence, Kansas, where he was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. A year later, in 1942, he was appointed to the Naval Academy and graduated in June of 1945.
On June 7, 1945, the day after graduation from the Naval Academy, he married Glennie Jean Waters in Dearborn, Michigan, with whom he now is reunited after 67 years of marriage.
After graduation, Bob served on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. MIDWAY. In July 1946, Bob commenced post graduate instruc¬tion at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. Upon graduation with a Master Degree in Civil Engineering in Septem¬ber 1948, he transferred to the Navy Civil Engineer Corps. He and his family lived in many duty stations, including Panama, Alaska, and Cuba. After 26 years of service as a Naval Officer, Bob retired in January 1970 with the rank of Commander.
Bob started his civilian career, after retiring from the Navy, as the Director of Physical Plant for Occidental College, Los Angeles, California, until April 1986. After retirement from Occidental College, Bob was employed as an engineering consultant for physical plant facilities and operations for the J. Paul Getty Trust in the planning and design of the Getty Museum in Brent¬wood, California.
He wrote, on the occasion of his wife’s passing away only four months earlier, a highlight of his life with his beloved Glennie Jean was their son having been born in 1948, in Troy, New York on the graduation day of his Physical Engineering degree. Another highlight was their only son’s marriage to Han Ju Kim in the garden of the Baha’i House of Worship in 1976. Bob fondly remembered the day their granddaughter Jean was born in 1980 and the day their great-granddaughter Adelina was born in 2011.
Bob’s hobbies included storytelling and writing hundreds of short stories about his and his family’s lives, swimming, bicycle riding together with the neighborhood children as their “grandpa Bob,” and genealogy with Glennie Jean. He was known to all of his family and friends for his memorable homemade cards for all occasions.
He is survived by his son, Robert J. Kim Farley and his wife (Han Ju); his granddaughter, Jean Kimfarley Panahi, and her husband (Mark); his great-granddaughter, Adelina Jeanne Panahi; and his sister-in-law, Beverly Jane Waters; his cousin, Betty Jean Davidson, and several nieces and nephews from his two brothers (James Farley and John Farley) and sister (Barbara Farley Awbrey) who predeceased him.
Funeral services will be held at the First Presbyterian Church in Hutchinson at 10:00 am on Saturday, 20 October followed by a graveside service at Eastside Cemetery.