Richard G. FARMAN

FARMAN, BOULET

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 2/9/2008 at 12:58:01

[Richard G. Farman July 26, 1916, Belmond, Wright County, Iowa — May 5, 2002, Seattle, King County, Washington]

Copyright, 2002
Seattle Post Intelligencer, WA

Dick Farman, the 'King Pickle,' dies in Seattle at 85

Wednesday, May 8, 2002

By DAVID EGGERT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

It started in 1944, in a back yard in Enumclaw, where two brothers planted 10 acres of cucumbers and turned them into old-fashioned dill pickles. Today, nearly 60 years later, Farman's Pickles are stocked in nearly every grocery store in Western Washington and sold in at least 12 other states.

Dick Farman, along with his brother, built a pickle business with a name that has become synonymous with the product throughout the Northwest. Sunday, though, Farman's lost its namesake, Dick Farman, "The King Pickle." Mr. Farman died at his home in West Seattle. He was 85. Mr. Farman co-founded Farman Brothers Pickle Co. and worked in the pickle business for more than 50 years.

His pickle jars had a signature label -- a pickle with a crown on top, dubbed "The King Pickle." "Anybody with a store around here has Farman's Pickles in it," said Don Grover, a longtime employee. Mr. Farman, a graduate of Kent High School who played football at Washington State University and for the Washington Redskins of the National Football League, was remembered by friends and family as a big, modest man whose favorite phrase was, "Life is a journey, not a destination."

"He was a real class act," said his son, Dick, of Olympia. "Anyone who ever knew him felt that way about him. "He was not your typical self-centered entrepreneur. He always pulled for the little guy and never got caught up in his wealth or accolades."

Mr. Farman was born in Belmond, Iowa, and moved to Kent at a young age. He worked at a pickle plant during high school and college. In 1944, he and his brother, Fred, noticed a shortage of consumer goods in the war economy. The two-man team -- figuring they could draw on their past experience in food-processing plants -- grew 10 acres of cucumbers in Fred's back yard in Enumclaw. They processed the "cukes" in a 20-by-20 foot shed. In 1948, they hired Grover, a mechanical genius, as their first full-time employee. At first, the trio put up 65 tons of cucumbers a year, selling dill pickles by the barrel to other packers. Forty years later, 44 regular and more than 200 seasonal employees put up more than 14 million pounds of cucumbers, making and bottling some 30 types of pickles. Dick Farman was company president.

"He had a pretty basic understanding of business," said his granddaughter, Tonia Farman, of Seattle. "He started selling pickles to friends and little grocery stores, and then just expanded from there." Farman's Pickles are sold in at least 13 states, largely because of Issaquah-based Costco, which took the pickles with it while expanding throughout the West. "My uncle made them, and my dad sold them off the truck," Mr. Farman's son, Dick, said. "He just treated people the way they wanted to be treated. "He fought for every inch of shelf space he ever got." It was that same fighting spirit that made Mr. Farman a standout on the football field. Mr. Farman starred as an "iron man" guard for the Cougars from 1936 to 1938, playing all but 11 of 600 minutes during the 1938 season, when he was co-captain. In 1936, as a sophomore, he demonstrated his trademark persistence, sneaking onto the team train to Los Angeles, even though he was not part of the traveling squad. He played well and secured a spot for the rest of the season.

Called "Musc" -- short for "muscles" -- by his teammates, Mr. Farman was drafted in 1939 by the Redskins, which won three divisional titles and the 1942 NFL championship. Mr. Farman played in one of the more memorable NFL championship games -- a 73-0 loss to the Chicago Bears in 1940.

That same year, he married his wife, Harriet, whom he met at WSU. After suffering some injuries and realizing that his pay -- $140 a game back then -- was not all that great, Mr. Farman came back to the Northwest. He was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity and the WSU board of trustees, served as president of the Kiwanis Club, attended Seaview United Methodist Church and volunteered at the West Seattle YMCA. In 1990, he was inducted into WSU's Athletic Hall of Fame.

Mr. Farman is survived by his wife, two children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Services are 11 a.m. Saturday at Seaview United Methodist Church.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/69545_obit08.shtml
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The Pickle King of West Seattle
- E. Warren Lawless Monday, May 09, 2005

In a recent Seattle Times story, business columnist Frank Vintuan referred to him as the “Pickle King.” To his friends and colleagues he was usually “Dick” or less reverently, “Pickles.”
Of course, that part of the late Richard Farman’s story started in a few acres of cucumbers ready to turn into jars of dill pickles. It was his kid brother Herb’s project, but Dick pitched in to help. But, we are getting ahead of the story of a real West Seattle gem in the rough. It didn’t start here. He was born in Belmond, Iowa. His family moved to Kent, Washington and he graduated from Kent High school. His burly physique and determined style of play won him a spot on legionary coach Babe Hollingberry’s Washington State University Football Team. He was co-captain as a senior in 1938 and played all but 31 of the 600 minutes Wazoo competed in that year. After college he went on to the Washington Redskins. In 1942, with Dick’s help, the “Skins” upset George Hallas’ indestructible Chicago Bears to win the NFL Championship. Farman was one of four ex-Cougs to share that accomplishment. He played through the 1943 season and was named first-team guard on the All-NFL team. His reddish hair and ruddy complexion were appropriate matches for Coug and Redskin color schemes. A big guy, by the measurements of his day, Dick never approached the tonnage of present professional linemen and probably made less in his pro career than the present minimum pay for one season. In 1960 he was inducted into the Wazoo Hall of Fame.

Back to the pickles. Dick was quiet an easygoing brother, comfortable meeting customers, so he was the natural candidate for sales operations in the newly-founded Farman Brothers Pickle Co. His brother, Herb,, less erudite, took on running the processing chores. The plant in Enumclaw is credited with 60 years of dousing the town with a unmistakable pickleish aroma. In 1987 the company was acquired by Nalley’s fine foods and moved to Nalley Valley in Tacoma. To the delight of loyal patrons, the venerable Farman label has been retained and still appears on grocery shelves in all 15 of its its popular varieties, dill, and sweet, sliced, chipped and relish.

County Fair at Enumclaw! The oldest county fair in the state, it's smaller and more folksy than the Puyallup; the price is right, too. It had some traditions all its own. One of them, the annual Farman's pickle look-alike contest. Promotions said, “You can get in free from 10 a.m. to noon if you come dressed as a pickle.” The King Pickle Contest awarded prizes for the most pickle-like person — warts and all!

Obviously, pickles didn’t occupy all of Dick Farman’s time and attention. He became very active in the West Seattle community where he resided with his wife Harriet and family in the Fauntleroy neighborhood. He was a leading member of the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle and retained his membership until his death in 2002. Farman had been a Kiwanian long before I joined, but I have fond memories of his cool sense of humor and faculty for reserving his opinion for the most telling instant in a discussion. He participated in staging the Kiwanis’ Dr. Joe Aiken Grade School Track Meet and the annual Hole-in-One Contest at the West Seattle Golf Course driving range. He always found a way to come up with the syrup for the Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast and it never had a picklish flavor. How he acquired it was his own well-kept secret. Farman served as a director of the West Seattle Branch of the YMCA and was active in Seaview United Methodist Church, site of his memorial services.

His son, Richard lives in Olympia. A daughter, Carrie Boulet, herself a former “Miss West Seattle,” settled in Puyallup. His brother Herb moved to Bremerton. Harriet now resides in Des Moines, WA.
http://www.westseattle.com/columns/view_column.asp?id=25