George Farren

George Farren passed away on March 22, 2014, from natural causes in Cary, NC. He was a last remaining member of the 101st Regiment Horse Cavalry, a captain in the rear guard military police unit attached to the 5th Army Headquarters of General Mark Clark during the German counter-attack at Salerno, and truly representative of the “greatest generation.”

Born on July 6, 1917, in Freeport, NY, to William A. and Anna Johnson Farren and raised in Brooklyn Heights, he was educated at Poly Prep in Brooklyn and NYU and lived for ten years after the war in the metropolitan NYC area, becoming a sales representative in the building materials business. In 1955, he moved to Irondequoit, NY, where in 1967 he was elected to its Town Council as a Republican and acted as de facto supervisor for more than two years. He resisted zoning proposals that in his opinion would have benefited organized crime and pressures from his party. Meanwhile, he prospered as a self-employed manufacturer’s agent in building supplies and relaxed by playing golf.

His most formidable accomplishment was to raise four boys after the untimely death in 1963 of his first wife, nee Doris Lavington, until he remarried in 1966 the former Nancy Eyer of Rochester, NY. Together they afforded each son a fine education.

In 1971, he decided to relive his horse cavalry days and moved to a 46-acre farm in Rushville, NY, to raise Morgan horses despite advice from Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives to remain in Irondequoit and run again for Town Council, confident he would win a Republican primary if he chose to stay. While at Cobblestone Hollow Farm, he represented New York Wire Mills for several prosperous years with his son Thomas and then diversified into the home construction business.

In 1978, tiring of the long winters and diminished upstate business opportunities that he attributed to Nelson Rockefeller’s high taxes, he moved to Carolina Trace, a golfing community south of Sanford in Lee County, NC, where he spent 12 years building houses under the name Rytek Ltd. Nancy did all the accounting and his son Peter joined the business out of college. With Peter, he became a founding partner of Lee Window & Door.

An avid reader and lover of opera and classical music, he decided to return to New York in 1990 and moved to Geneva, a college town, where he and Nancy could have a social life amenable to his eclectic interests. He served on the Planning Board for the Town of Geneva, raised long-fin comet goldfish in his backyard pond, watched birds at the feeder outside his window, joined the local Rotary Club, which honored him, and the local opera society, while going to Hilton Head each winter. He remained in Geneva in the home he and Nancy built until his last illness.

He is survived by his devoted wife, Nancy, four sons – Richard and David of New York City, Thomas of San Francisco and Peter of Cary, NC, four daughters-in-law -- Ellen, Barbara DeBuono, M.D., Ranveig Elvebakk, M.D., and Phyllis, six grandchildren -- Elizabeth, Robert, Adam, Douglas, Caitlin and Hudson, one great grandchild, Alexander Piro, his brother William A. Farren and several nieces and nephews.

Services will be private.