Terry Farr

Sep 14, 1941 -

Jul 6, 2023

Terry Roy Farr, age 81, came to Alaska aboard the steamship SS Alaska in November 1941, with his mother Helen L. Farr (nee Young), sister Pauline and brother Tom, where they were happily greeted in Seward by his father, Orin L. Farr, who had blazed the way for the family earlier that same year. The Farrs moved back and forth between Montana and Seward in the 1940s and 50s, before settling fully in the Last Frontier, where Terry graduated from Seward High School in 1959. Following graduation, Terry entered into the Alaska Army National Guard, serving as a heavy equipment operator and earning the rank of sergeant before being honorably discharged in 1963. Terry briefly attended the University of Alaska before following his father into the skilled trades as an apprentice carpenter and millwright in 1963. He worked construction in Alaska until the opportunities of the pipeline boom attracted him to the oil and gas industry. In the late 1970s, he worked for Atlantic Richfield (Arco) in Tacoma, Wash., building many of the modules that were key to the buildout of Arco's Prudhoe Bay facilities and barged to the North Slope during the famous summer sea lifts. Following the completion of that project in the early 1980s, Terry continued working for Arco as a mechanical maintenance trainer in Prudhoe Bay until the early 2000s. Retiring from Arco, Terry went to work for Chugach Electric at their Beluga power plant as a turbine mechanic, where his work kept the lights on for many years, until retiring to his home of 47 years in Anchorage for good, where he surrounded himself with a menagerie of happy cats and dogs that helped him work on his beloved Harley Davidson motorcycles. A fiercely independent Alaskan, proud veteran, and a loving - and loved - father, uncle, grandfather and great-grandfather, Terry was preceded in death by his parents, Orin and Helen; sister, Pauline; brother, Tom; and daughter, Kristin Billington.

He is survived by his son, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Farr, United States Air Force (Retired) and wife Dr. Maritza Liranzo, M.D., of Winter Springs, Fla.; their children, Natalie and Nicole; granddaughter, Bria Billington and partner Robert Brown, and their child and Terry's great-grandson, Westen, all of Anchorage; and grandson, Jacob Billington of Maricopa, Ariz. He was happily anticipating the August wedding of granddaughter Jenna Billington and fiance Tanner Farley, both of Fairbanks. He is also survived by his niece, Virginia Farr of Auburn, N.Y.; nephew, Captain Scott Farr, United States Navy (Retired) and wife Melanie Farr of Alexandria, Va., and their children Hank and Kathleen.

A celebration of Terry's life will be held at Kehl's Memorial Chapel, 11621 Old Seward Highway in Anchorage, on Friday, July 21, 2023, at 10 a.m.