Since the early 1900s, the Farmer family has been a part of Wiscasset’s landscape. Carolyn Greenleaf and Raymond E. Farmer were both born and raised in the Boothbay Harbor area and were married in 1926. They had four children, the eldest was Roy.

Roy Farmer was born in Honduras, where his father worked for the United Fruit Company, managing a banana plantation. According to an article written in the February 1942 issue of the Ladies Home Journal, “Meet the Farmers of Wiscasset, Maine,” Carolyn Farmer did not like living in Honduras, and wanted to come home to raise her family.  

In 1929, when Roy Farmer was 2 years old, the Farmers came back to the states, and his father became Wiscasset’s A&P store manager.

Roy Farmer grew up in Wiscasset, along with his late brother Wesley, and his two sisters, June and Verne, who are also deceased. In the 1942 article written about the Farmers, Roy Farmer was described as a handsome high school sophomore who was thinking of going to Annapolis.

Farmer spent a lot of time at the library growing, and when time permitted, he enjoyed hunting with his father. To the Farmers, hunting was not just a sport. “We never shot anything we couldn’t eat, that was the reason to hunt,” Farmer said.

He graduated from Wiscasset Academy in 1944. After graduation, he tried to join the Navy, but they would not take him because he was color blind.

He tried to join the Air Force and was rejected for the same reason. “I never knew that I was color blind until I tried to enlist in the service. So I decided to wait for the draft to call me.”

For a year Farmer went to work at Bath Iron Works in the carpenter shop as a stage builder.

Military service years

Sure enough, when Farmer turned 18 years old in 1945, he was drafted by the Army. He said he was happy to have the opportunity to serve his country.

After boot camp at Fort Bragg, N.C., he came home for a furlough to visit with his family before being shipped to Germany.  

Although the war ended in Germany by the time Farmer got there, he saw the devastation left by the war.

Farmer was a member of 66th Constabulary Squadron based at Fort May, in Degerndorf, Germany.

According to Farmer, the patrol assignments were changed every couple of weeks, and they would move to another town. “It was very important to show a very strong American presence there,” he said.”

Farmer loved Germany, and even considered re-enlisting and staying in Germany. However, he decided to return to Maine.  

Life after the military

After being discharged, Farmer went to University of Maine in Orono for four years and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He graduated in 1951.

During the fall of 1950, he met Joanne Pearson while attending a dance at Lakehurst. The couple was married in December of 1951. They had one daughter, Kim.

For two years Farmer worked with an engineering company, which was contracted to put an addition on to the Mason Station. After that, in 1953, he purchased the Hawkes Insurance Agency. In 1954, he started the Roy Farmer Real Estate agency. In 1963, Farmer and David Soule started the Carl M.P. Larrabee Insurance Agency.

Being in the real estate business for about 59 years, Farmer has seen a lot of changes in the value of properties, and has sold the same properties multiple times.

In the 1950s, he said he sold a property for $8,400, about 50-years later the same property sold for $2 million.

Farmer received the 2001 Business Man of the Year award from the National Republican Congressional Committee’s Business Advisory Council during a session of the Maine Legislature in 2002; the Barnes and Smith Lifetime Achievement Award at the first Annual meeting of the Wiscasset Chamber of Commerce in 2012; and the town of Wiscasset Business Recognition Award in 2012.

In addition to Farmer’s service record, his business endeavors, his public service to the state, Lincoln County, and the town of Wiscasset are also impressive:

-Served on the 98th House of Representative for the state of Maine;

-Served 30 years, as Bail Commissioner for Lincoln County

-Served two years as Lincoln County Treasurer

-Served 28 years as Lincoln County Register of Probate

-Past President of the Lincoln County Board of Realtors

-Wiscasset selectman

-Wiscasset Budget Committee

-Founder of the Wiscasset Industrial Development Corp.  That enabled the town to purchase almost Wiscasset’s entire downtown waterfront.

Farmer sold his real estate business to the Nancy Carlton, a few years ago.  Now, at the age of 85, he shows no signs of retiring, he continues to stay on as the designated broker at the Wiscasset office, the oldest real estate agency in Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties. Farmer is the current president of the Carl M.P. Larrabee Insurance agency (the insurance business was not sold).

During a recent interview, Farmer said, “The town of Wiscasset has been very good to me.”

One could say with certainty, “Roy Farmer has been good for the town of Wiscasset.”

Charlotte Boynton can be reached at 207-844-4632 or cboynton@wiscassetneewspaper.com.