Frank Farrar

Farrar was born in Britton, South Dakota, the son of Venetia Soule (Taylor) and Virgil W. Farrar.[2] He was an Eagle Scout, student body president and graduated from the local high school in Britton in 1947.[3][4] He earned a B.S. from the University of South Dakota (USD) an LL.B. degree from the USD School of Law.[5] He joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps as a student at USD,[6] and was in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1949 through 1953, and on active duty during the Korean War from 1953 to 1955.[5] He attained the rank of captain by the time he retired from the Army Reserve.[4] He married the former Patricia Henley on June 5, 1953, in Fort Benning, Georgia, where he was stationed in the U.S. Army.[7] Frank and Patricia Farrar raised five children, Jeanne, Sally, Robert, Mary and Anne.[3]

After the Korean War ended, Farrar was an Internal Revenue Service Agent until 1957. He was a judge in 1958. Farrar served as State's Attorney for Marshall County from 1959 to 1962. He also served as President of the States Attorneys Association.[8]

On May 22, 1962, Farrar announced that he was running for Attorney General of South Dakota. Sterling Clark, of Belle Fourche, also ran for the Republican nomination for Attorney General.[8] Farrar won the nomination with 96,608 1/2 votes to 57,339 1/2 votes for Clark.[9] Farrar went on to defeat Democrat Thomas E. Poe of Vermillion, South Dakota, in the general election.[10] Poe had replaced Democrat William Day of Winner, South Dakota, who resigned his candidacy for business reasons.[11] At 33 years old at the time, he was the youngest person in the history of South Dakota to be elected as the state's attorney general.[3]

On July 1, 1964, Farrar sought re-nomination as attorney general.[12] He was re-elected with 157,848 votes, defeating Democrat William C. Grady, who received 125,047.[13] In the 1966 general election, Farrar ran against Democrat Robert M. Swanson,[14] and won a third term with 141,734 votes to 79,670 for Swanson. With Farrar's election to a third term, there was much speculation that he would be the heir apparent for Republican Gubernatorial nomination in 1968.[15] In his three two-year terms as the state's attorney general, he focused on crackdowns on drug users and dealers, and much efforts were put into the enforcement of insurance, banking and securities laws.[6]

With his success and popularity through the years as South Dakota's attorney general, Farrar garnered more than 57% of the vote to defeat the Democratic candidate Robert Chamberlin in the 1968 gubernatorial election.[16][17] As governor, he continued his work on reducing drug-related crimes, improving consumer protection and modernizing the state’s regulatory authority over the banking and insurance industries.[6] However, he lost much support when he raised the state sales tax from 3% to 4% and promoted unpopular reforms in the energy sector, which led to him being defeated when running for reelection 2 years later.[4] That was “the only election I lost in my life,” he later remarked in a 2014 interview.[18] As of 2021, this was the last time for an elected, sitting governor of South Dakota to lose re-election.[18]

After his two-year term as governor concluded, Farrar moved back to Britton to practice law.[19] He also became a successful banker later in life, buying, operating and selling a number of local banks in small towns and in rural areas in the Dakotas, Minnesota and as far as Indiana, Montana and New Mexico.[3][20] As a philanthropist, he generously supported various non-profit organizations, such as Scouts, the March of Dimes, and the South Dakota Community Foundation.[18]

Farrar was a licensed aviator who flew to visit the banks he owned,[20] and over the years, he accumulated over 17,000 hours of logged piloting time.[21] He was also an avid athlete, completing the Kona Ironman Competition at age 73, a decade after surviving lymphatic cancer.[21] He held the 9th fastest finishing time in the Coeur D’Alene Ironman in the 70+ Men's division. He completed the 2003 race in 16:48:49.[22] His wife, former First Lady of South Dakota Patricia Farrar, who was also a Senior Olympian, died on October 31, 2015, at the age of 84.[23]

On October 31, 2021, the sixth anniversary of the death of his wife of sixty-two years, Farrar died in Rochester, Minnesota, at age 92.[4] He is survived by his five children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.[24]

• Alumni of the Year for the School of Business at the University of South Dakota (USD), 1979[25]
• the USD Achievement Award, 1981[25]
• Distinguished Eagle Scout Award, 2001[25]
• Inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame, 2006.[25][26]
• Parade Marshal for the 104th "Dakota Days" homecoming parade at USD, 2018[27]

• National Governors Association: Frank Farrar
• KDLT News: "Frank Farrar: A Man Made of Iron" Archived July 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
• Ironman: "Meet Frank Farrar, Kona's Last Official Finisher in 2002"
• Frank Farrar Finishing Ironman Wisconsin in 2007 on YouTube