Father Farr

Father Phineas Farr was a small man with a large whistle. Somewhere he had learned the art of the little finger pull the lips apart, stretch out the corner of the mouth,  blowover the tongue between the teeth shrill whistle.

We heard it for the first time on our first day at Bishop Sheehan High. We were herded into groups of five and seated on the front lawn when Farr emerged from inside the school and hit us with that big whistle as if he was herding a group of lambs to shearing.

He began his diatribe and informed us that  we should look at our group of five and realize that at least one of us in each group would be gone, sent down to public school within the next four years. He made it clear that Sheehan was a college preparatory school and that its success and prestige was based on scholarship, discipline, spiritual growth, competition and college readiness. If we proved to be lacking in any of these categories or if we had trouble with the police, we would be sent packing and wouldn't be missed. He made it clear that we didn't want to be sent to his office because that was the last office  we see before we found ourselves enrolled at East High or West High or Jefferson or Adams or any of those other "places."

He was speaking into a microphone, probably fify yards away from the front rows of five. I was about 45 rows back out ot sixty. My row placement was pretty similar to my family's comparative economic status.

I couldn't get a real good look at the guy but I noticed he kinda resembled a Boston terrier with glasses and a shock of white hair. This was his first day on the job. He was intent on making a big impression. He succeeded.

Apparently he caught somebody laughing. The laughing boy also had a loose tie.  Farr told the kid to report to his office. The kid gave an "I didn't do anything" shrug, left his row, walked past the priest at the mike, up the stairs and outta sight. He was the first of us to enter the building. A few minutes later, he would be the first of us to be kicked out of the building as none of us ever saw that kid again.

Looking back at it now, it's possible that lauhing loose tie was a plant. Nobody suspected such shenanigans at the time so we were all scared shitless of Father Farr. I did everything that I could to avoid getting anywhere near the guy or his office for the next three years.  I pretty much succeeded although I spent some nevous time in the hallways as sharkbait.

A hundred of us did make the visit to the his office on our way to East or West or Farifield or Southport. We started with a class of 300 . We graduated 200. All 200 went to four year colleges, most of them Catholic colleges. 

We were Farr's only four year class. He departed the same year that we did....1964.

Only today, the reasons for his departure are becoming clear.