William Lloyd Garrison

Gotta love a patriotic guy who would get up on the banner-bedecked stage with flags flying proudly and burn a copy of the US Constitution at a 4th of July rally. He had his reasons.

I’m not sure of the relationship but I think his wife was my great-great-great-grandmother’s first cousin. Something along those lines. Anyway, it isn’t my fault.

His name was William Lloyd Garrison, and he published a rabble-rousing abolitionist newspaper called The Liberator. At one point some Democrats in Boston lassoed him and dragged him through the streets on the way to tar and featherdom on Boston Common, but the sheriff came to the rescue by arresting Garrison and locking in the pokey. So Democrats’ behavior has improved, if only slightly, since then. They’re working on it tho.

“On July 4, 1854, he publicly burned a copy of the Constitution, condemning it as "a Covenant with Death, an Agreement with Hell," referring to the compromise that had written slavery into the Constitution.”

Now that’s a rabble rouser for you. We could use more Republicans like William Lloyd Garrison. The Democrats took sledge hammers to his printing press, and still he soldiered on. Burned the Constitution at a 4th of July rally. Just imagine.

More here.

Of Lolita and Butterflies

They're both ephemeral (Lolita died near the end of the book) but I had no idea that Vladimir Nabokov was a Harvard curator of Lepidoptera. Now one of his great and dismissed theories of butterfly evolution has been vindicated by DNA analysis.

Boyd Holden Farr 1923-2009

 

Boyd Holden Farr grew up on a dry wheat farm at Arimo, Idaho. In his youth he enjoyed basketball, the clarinet, and Scouting. Born on the 29th of April, 1923, in Downey, Idaho, he was the son of Atherton and Mary Jensen Farr.

 

Above: Once plowed with a team of horses: Part of the Farr family wheat farm at Arimo.

In 1942 Boyd entered the engineering program at the University of Utah, where he met the love of his life, Winona Christensen.

When Boyd's college deferment was lifted in the spring of 1944, he enlisted in the Navy's electronics training program. After graduation Boyd was assigned to the USS Healy, a destroyer which escorted the Battleship New Jersey through numerous engagements, including Guam, Wake Island, and Okinawa. The USS Healy acted as harbor control vessel in Tokyo Harbor while the treaty ending the war with Japan was signed.

On 11 May, 1946, he and Nonie were sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple by President George Albert Smith. They moved to the San Francisco Bay area, where Boyd worked for RCA. He served as RCA's field representative for the western part of the United States.

While working for RCA, Boyd helped introduce television, and later assisted in the introduction of the 45 rpm record player in Philadelphia.

After retiring from RCA Boyd became an entrepreneur, starting two different companies, Service West and, with his son, Randal, Ogment Group. During his golden years Boyd enjoyed serving with Nonie as ordinance workers in the LDS Oakland Temple, calling this "a most enjoyable experience." He spent the later years of his life serving his church and his family.

Boyd is survived by his wife Winona, and their children Kipley Atherton Farr, Valerie Mary Farr Bosworth, and Randal Boyd Farr, his sister Persis Farr Thomas, eight grandchildren; Michael, Rachel, Emma, Elizabeth, Abram, Tessa, and Ethan Farr, and Gregory Evans, as well as nine great grandchildren. He was predeceased by two daughters, Winona Aimee and Pia Hi'ilani, and one great grandchild.

Graveside services were held in Arimo, Idaho, on Saturday, November 7th, 2009, with military rites.

The flag ceremony at Boyd's funeral in Arimo, Idaho:




Boyd (front row, middle) with family, rafting on the Salmon River in 2003 (as usual, clik on the stills for bigger versions):

 

What a ride!

Boyd Holden Farr, of Lafayette, California, died Wednesday, October 28th, 2009, at Kaiser Permanente Hospital, Walnut Creek, CA.

A slightly different version of this appeared in the Idaho State Journal, November 5th, 2009

UPDATE 2014: I no longer remember who wrote the above obituary, but I think it was Kip. I mostly added the photos and video.

New York Times: Good for something

There is an interesting story about Michelle Obama's family history in today's edition.