After more than 60 years of helping folks find their “home sweet home,” Wiscasset real estate agent Roy Farmer is retiring, and this time he really means it.

A reception honoring Farmer will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, at the Water’s Edge banquet facility in Edgecomb, which is located just past Donald E. Davey Bridge on Eddy Road. The celebration is open to friends, colleagues and anyone else who wants to wish Farmer the very best in his retirement.

For the record, Farmer is continuing on as president and majority owner of the Carl M.P. Larrabee Agency, also located in Wiscasset..

Although it’s nice to be honored in such a way, Farmer is surprised and quite humbled by all the attention. He’s not one who relishes being in the limelight. Last summer when the Lincoln County Board of Realtors honored him as Realtor of the Year for 2014, he joked that had he known in advance he might have skipped the dinner.

Farmer sold his real estate business, Roy Farmer Associates, to Nancy Carleton in 2009 and the name has since been changed to Carleton Realty. Farmer stayed on after the sale and most days could be found at his usual place at his desk on the second floor. One look at the piles of paperwork alongside him shows he’s still one of Carleton Realty’s busiest brokers.

News of Farmer’s pending retirement created quite a buzz — and not just around Maine’s Prettiest Village. When he arrived at the office yesterday morning, he found messages on his answering machine from two newspapers seeking an interview. (He met with the Wiscasset Newspaper on Oct. 9.)

Farmer has lived a long and colorful life. He’s 88. Few people know he was actually born in the Central American country of Honduras on April 8, 1927.

His father, Raymond Farmer, who was originally from East Boothbay, had worked for the United Fruit Co. managing a banana plantation there. His mother, Carolyn, was from West Boothbay. Her maiden name was Greenleaf. Roy was much too young to remember anything of those early years.

“When my parents returned to Maine, they settled first in Boothbay. I guess I was 3 or 4 years old at the time,” Farmer recalled. “Dad ran and managed the Great A & P Tea Company there. It was sort of a grocery store, a national chain back then that had similar stores in many places.

“Later Dad moved the family to Wiscasset and operated the A & P here. It was located down on the corner of Main and Middle streets, where the Asian restaurant is today. When the A & P closed he bought the equipment and opened his own grocery store, which he called Farmer’s Market. That was back in the 1940s,” Farmer said.

Farmer’s Market eventually moved to the other side of Main Street where Mac’s Café is now located and stayed in business there for a number of years.

Farmer attended Wiscasset schools. He was one of nine members of the Wiscasset Academy Class of 1944. The academy was located on Federal Street where the grammar school is today. One of Farmer’s classmates and best friends was the late Conrad Peters who later went to work selling real estate for Roy Farmer Associates. Another classmate was the late Virginia Butler who married Ben Rines Sr. and for many years lived on Churchill Street.

Following graduation, Farmer said he tried to enlist in the U.S. Navy but was turned away. “They said I was colorblind,” he explained, adding a year later Uncle Sam decided that didn’t matter and drafted him into the Army.

“The war with Japan was still going on, but they sent me over to Germany. By that time the Germans had already surrendered, so fortunately I wasn’t involved in any of the fighting,” he said.

Farmer was assigned to the Occupational Force’s Constabulary that served as police force to the country in the U.S. Zone. He was stationed near Munich and not far from the Austrian border. “It was close to the Eagle’s Nest, (Hitler’s mountaintop retreat) from the summit you had a beautiful view down into Austria,” he recalled, adding he was promoted to the rank of corporal.

When Farmer returned stateside he enrolled at the University of Maine at Orono. He graduated in 1951 with a degree in business administration. The same year he married the love of his life, Joanne. Farmer tried his hand at several jobs, including working a stint at the Bath Iron Works as a stage builder.

In 1953 he decided to go into business for himself. He bought Herbert Hawes’s insurance business located downtown Wiscasset in the Wawenock Block, next door to Franklin Hall.

“My office was just down the hall from where the barber shop is today. I think I paid $10 a month rent!” he said, laughing.

Around the same time he began selling real estate. Back then single family homes were selling from between $8,000 and $9,000.

In 1963 Farmer entered into a partnership with attorney David Soule Sr., resulting in the Hawes insurance company merging with the Carl M.P. Larrabee Insurance Agency. He and Soule, who died a few years ago, grew to be close friends. Together they purchased the former home of Dr. DeForest S. Day, the white brick building at 152 Main Street where the realty and insurance businesses are still located. The building is also home to the law offices of Soule, Soule & Logan.

Over the decades, Farmer said he’s witnessed many changes in the community, but he and his wife Joanne are still very happy and pleased to call Wiscasset home.  

“People are asking me what I’ll miss the most. I tell them it’s the people. I’ve met so very many people over the years, wonderful people. That’s the part of the business I’m really going to miss,” he told the newspaper.

Along with owning the real estate and insurance businesses, Farmer has a long and very impressive resume of community service. He was a trustee for the Wiscasset School District for 25 years, served as a Wiscasset selectman and also as a state representative in the 98th Maine House of Representatives. He is also a past president of the Wiscasset High School Alumni Association.

Farmer has also spent many hours working in the Lincoln County Courthouse. For 28 years he was the Lincoln County Register of Probate and for 30 years the Lincoln County Bail Commissioner. He also served a 2-year term as Lincoln County Treasurer.

He’s a lifetime member of the Lincoln County Board of Realtors and the Maine Association of Realtors, and a Realtor Emeritus with the National Association of Realtors. Farmer is a member of the American Legion, the Masons, the Wiscasset Fire Society and the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association.

A note to our readers, the Carl M. P. Larrabee Insurance Agency, and Soule, Soule and Logan will be closing at 4 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, so that employees can wish Roy and Joanne all the best for the future.