Please remember in your prayers Dr. Paul Farnham, retired member of the Geology Department
Please remember in your prayers Dr. Paul Farnham, a longtime member of the University of St. Thomas geology faculty, who died Friday, June 6.
Dr. Farnham, 71, was an associate professor who taught at St. Thomas for 30 years. He retired in 1999.
A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 10, at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis. Please check the newspaper for further details.
Dr. Farnham began learning about geology at an early age when he would accompany his father on prospecting field trips, according to Dr. Farnham’s wife, Fran. He later would lead many groups of St. Thomas students on geology field trips to locations throughout the United States.
He received his bachelor’s degree in physics from Western Maryland College in 1953. He received his master’s in geology from Virginia Tech in 1960 and his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Minnesota in 1967. He began teaching at St. Thomas in the late 1960s, and joined the faculty on a permanent basis in 1970.
One St. Thomas alumna, Kerri Luecke, of White Bear Lake, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Farnham "was fun – the what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy. You couldn't help but love Doc once you got to know him."
Farnham was a deacon at Westminster Presbyterian Church in downtown Minneapolis and a longtime member of its choir. He was vice president of People and Parks, a volunteer organization that supports the Minneapolis parks system, and was a volunteer at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley.
Dr. Farnham suffered an abdominal aneurysm Thursday, June 5, and died the following day at the Hennepin County Medical Center.
Survivors include his wife, Fran, and two sons, Logan, a 1996 St. Thomas graduate, and MacDonald, a 1995 St. Thomas graduate.
Memorials are preferred, in lieu of flowers, to the University of St. Thomas, the Minnesota Zoo Foundation or the Westminster Church Choir.
