Obituary for Patricia P. Farmer (Dow)
Patricia P. Farmer of Cushing, Maine, died peacefully at the Sussman House hospice on May
20th. Pat (how she preferred to be called) lived an extraordinarily rich life of 95 years. She was
a worker, from early employment as a high schooler in Boston to finally retiring from Columbia
University in her 80s, taking breaks along the way for college, graduate school, and raising a
family. Her favorite jobs took advantage of her skills in (and passion for) writing, editing,
teaching, making art, and imaginative planning. She loved to travel, exploring diverse cultures
from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, through much of Europe to North Africa and Mayan
Mexico.
Pat was the only child of John Aldrich Dow and Katherine Orear Dow. She described
a childhood surrounded by adults, with no cousins or other relatives, but transformed her life into
one of extended family, including her own five children and an acquired network of relatives
who honor her memory and mourn her death.
She had deep roots in New England, descended from Dows who emigrated to New
England in the 17th century. Born March 7, 1927, in Winchester, Massachusetts, she grew up
in nearby Reading, where her grandfather was the town doctor, in a home modeled after a
traditional 17th-century New England saltbox.
She graduated from Middlebury College with a major in fine arts, which remained one of her principal loves. She met and married Robert Metzger, living in Virginia and then abroad in Cyprus with her first two children, Geoffrey and Alison. A second daughter, Victoria (known as Tory), was born on the family’s return to America,
settling in North Carolina where Pat’s husband was a professor in the history of philosophy.
Devoted to the fine arts, she enrolled in the graduate art history program at The University of North Carolina.
She told the story of another new graduate student, arriving from California, asking if she could bring his bicycle to Chapel Hill from Raleigh’s train station. That student was David Farmer and it was the beginning of love for him and an eventual 57-year marriage. With her MA degree in 1963, she taught art history at Westhampton College, the women’s college of the University of Richmond.
There was further travel — a year in Brussels, Belgium, where she worked at the
American Library and translated and edited publications. Back in America, she was the first
woman to work on the editorial “rim” at the Worcester Evening Gazette, editing, writing
headlines, feature articles, and obituaries. Pat’s strong opinions about language compelled her
to advocate plain words rather than euphemisms: for death, not “passed on” but “died.” Their
first daughter Emily was born in Worcester before they moved to Cambridge, where David
directed Harvard University’s Busch-Reisinger Museum. Pat became the publicist for The
Advocates, a PBS program produced at WGBH. One memorable venture took her and Hoagie
Carmichael, Jr., to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in the middle of a snowy winter in South
Dakota while pregnant with Rachel, was born later safely in the comfort of Cambridge’s Mount
Auburn Hospital.
In Chicago, she combined her art historical and editorial skills as a curatorial researcher
for the excellent art collection at the First National Bank. Pat’s handsome catalog was her
first major publication. Belgium always called, so the family moved to Bruges for a year to live
in a 17th-century house on one of the main canals, where she translated and edited
publications for the Flemish Cultural Office. That year lacked snow in Belgium, so the family
took the train at Christmastime to Austria, Poland, and the German Democratic Republic. Pat
was always an adventurous traveler, an urge she never abandoned.
After that Wanderjahr (the German term for a year of travel), the Farmers settled in
Birmingham, Alabama. Pat was an active host for social events at the family home and, as
curator of the gallery at the University of Alabama Birmingham and president of the
Birmingham Art Association, promoted a vital contemporary art scene. Collaborating with the
Museum of Art, she organized workshops that brought well-known artists to Birmingham,
including Wayne Thiebaud, George Segal, and Pat Steir.
Following another year in Belgium (Brussels this time), the Farmers moved to Santa
Barbara. Pat found an exceptional situation at the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission,
which actively supported the local arts community through grants, commissions, and other
programs. While enjoying the famous California lifestyle, Pat and David realized that there
should be a long-term, final plan for life after work. So, in one of those remarkably
unpredictable occurrences, she found herself visiting midcoast Maine to reunite with an old
friend, and saw an 1880 farmhouse on the St. George River in Cushing that looked like the
perfect family home. In 1993, they bought it and established what would eventually be dubbed
Left Field.
When David was offered a position in New York City, Pat agreed it was the right time to
leave Paradise on the Pacific and return to the world’s art capital. Both had lived there earlier
before they met and looked forward to a final professional destination on the East Coast. Pat
immediately joined the development office of Columbia University’s Health Sciences,
supervising a staff that produced publications and proposals.
Pat was always a strong walker, and from their apartment in northern Manhattan, it was an easy drive to some of the best hiking in New Jersey and upstate New York. The apartment also provided a panorama of New York
City, and Pat actually saw the attack on the twin towers from her office (12 floors above the
apartment), an alarming experience. Retirement had been on their minds for some time, and
that event prompted them to permanently move in 2002 to their 22-acre property in Cushing.
As a coda to retirement, Columbia asked her to continue producing publications for the
university’s historic Dental School, and she worked from her office on the second floor of Left
Field’s barn until 2010.
Pat loved being in her native New England and engaged fully in local
cultural and social affairs. She was a Board Member of the Cushing Public Library, an active
participant in its book group, and a member of the Rockland Shakespeare Society. Always
ready to make art, she was one of the well-known Nine Lively Ladies who exhibited their work
for several years at the Eastern Tire Gallery. With David, she actively supported the Georges
Land Trust, the General Henry Knox Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Center for
Maine Contemporary Art, the Strand and Lincoln Theaters, and the Knox County Democrats.
Left Field has been a wonderful home, needing only modest renovations and changes
over 40 years. And it has brought together her loving and diverse family for many years of
reunions and special events. Rachel and Matt were married in the barn and Rachel’s daughter
Juniper started life in the house. Geoffrey’s wedding was celebrated in a tent in the
meadow during a thunderstorm. Alison and her family discovered there how much they loved
Maine and eventually bought their own home in nearby Bremen.
Emily and Rachel have moved to Maine, and Tory loves spending time here. Pat’s family has grown from her five children to include eight grandchildren — Lucy, Jasper, Harry, Max, Phoenix, Emerson, Juniper and
Streeter — who also gather as they can. David’s contribution is abundant nieces, nephews, and
cousins.
Pat adamantly forbade any public memorial but her many friends, former students and
family members have responded with personal tributes and reminiscences.
Hall Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Thomaston, 78 Main Street, Thomaston has care of the arrangements. To extend online condolences to Pat's family please visit her Book of Memories at hallfuneralhomes.com.
20th. Pat (how she preferred to be called) lived an extraordinarily rich life of 95 years. She was
a worker, from early employment as a high schooler in Boston to finally retiring from Columbia
University in her 80s, taking breaks along the way for college, graduate school, and raising a
family. Her favorite jobs took advantage of her skills in (and passion for) writing, editing,
teaching, making art, and imaginative planning. She loved to travel, exploring diverse cultures
from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, through much of Europe to North Africa and Mayan
Mexico.
Pat was the only child of John Aldrich Dow and Katherine Orear Dow. She described
a childhood surrounded by adults, with no cousins or other relatives, but transformed her life into
one of extended family, including her own five children and an acquired network of relatives
who honor her memory and mourn her death.
She had deep roots in New England, descended from Dows who emigrated to New
England in the 17th century. Born March 7, 1927, in Winchester, Massachusetts, she grew up
in nearby Reading, where her grandfather was the town doctor, in a home modeled after a
traditional 17th-century New England saltbox.
She graduated from Middlebury College with a major in fine arts, which remained one of her principal loves. She met and married Robert Metzger, living in Virginia and then abroad in Cyprus with her first two children, Geoffrey and Alison. A second daughter, Victoria (known as Tory), was born on the family’s return to America,
settling in North Carolina where Pat’s husband was a professor in the history of philosophy.
Devoted to the fine arts, she enrolled in the graduate art history program at The University of North Carolina.
She told the story of another new graduate student, arriving from California, asking if she could bring his bicycle to Chapel Hill from Raleigh’s train station. That student was David Farmer and it was the beginning of love for him and an eventual 57-year marriage. With her MA degree in 1963, she taught art history at Westhampton College, the women’s college of the University of Richmond.
There was further travel — a year in Brussels, Belgium, where she worked at the
American Library and translated and edited publications. Back in America, she was the first
woman to work on the editorial “rim” at the Worcester Evening Gazette, editing, writing
headlines, feature articles, and obituaries. Pat’s strong opinions about language compelled her
to advocate plain words rather than euphemisms: for death, not “passed on” but “died.” Their
first daughter Emily was born in Worcester before they moved to Cambridge, where David
directed Harvard University’s Busch-Reisinger Museum. Pat became the publicist for The
Advocates, a PBS program produced at WGBH. One memorable venture took her and Hoagie
Carmichael, Jr., to the Rosebud Indian Reservation in the middle of a snowy winter in South
Dakota while pregnant with Rachel, was born later safely in the comfort of Cambridge’s Mount
Auburn Hospital.
In Chicago, she combined her art historical and editorial skills as a curatorial researcher
for the excellent art collection at the First National Bank. Pat’s handsome catalog was her
first major publication. Belgium always called, so the family moved to Bruges for a year to live
in a 17th-century house on one of the main canals, where she translated and edited
publications for the Flemish Cultural Office. That year lacked snow in Belgium, so the family
took the train at Christmastime to Austria, Poland, and the German Democratic Republic. Pat
was always an adventurous traveler, an urge she never abandoned.
After that Wanderjahr (the German term for a year of travel), the Farmers settled in
Birmingham, Alabama. Pat was an active host for social events at the family home and, as
curator of the gallery at the University of Alabama Birmingham and president of the
Birmingham Art Association, promoted a vital contemporary art scene. Collaborating with the
Museum of Art, she organized workshops that brought well-known artists to Birmingham,
including Wayne Thiebaud, George Segal, and Pat Steir.
Following another year in Belgium (Brussels this time), the Farmers moved to Santa
Barbara. Pat found an exceptional situation at the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission,
which actively supported the local arts community through grants, commissions, and other
programs. While enjoying the famous California lifestyle, Pat and David realized that there
should be a long-term, final plan for life after work. So, in one of those remarkably
unpredictable occurrences, she found herself visiting midcoast Maine to reunite with an old
friend, and saw an 1880 farmhouse on the St. George River in Cushing that looked like the
perfect family home. In 1993, they bought it and established what would eventually be dubbed
Left Field.
When David was offered a position in New York City, Pat agreed it was the right time to
leave Paradise on the Pacific and return to the world’s art capital. Both had lived there earlier
before they met and looked forward to a final professional destination on the East Coast. Pat
immediately joined the development office of Columbia University’s Health Sciences,
supervising a staff that produced publications and proposals.
Pat was always a strong walker, and from their apartment in northern Manhattan, it was an easy drive to some of the best hiking in New Jersey and upstate New York. The apartment also provided a panorama of New York
City, and Pat actually saw the attack on the twin towers from her office (12 floors above the
apartment), an alarming experience. Retirement had been on their minds for some time, and
that event prompted them to permanently move in 2002 to their 22-acre property in Cushing.
As a coda to retirement, Columbia asked her to continue producing publications for the
university’s historic Dental School, and she worked from her office on the second floor of Left
Field’s barn until 2010.
Pat loved being in her native New England and engaged fully in local
cultural and social affairs. She was a Board Member of the Cushing Public Library, an active
participant in its book group, and a member of the Rockland Shakespeare Society. Always
ready to make art, she was one of the well-known Nine Lively Ladies who exhibited their work
for several years at the Eastern Tire Gallery. With David, she actively supported the Georges
Land Trust, the General Henry Knox Museum, the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Center for
Maine Contemporary Art, the Strand and Lincoln Theaters, and the Knox County Democrats.
Left Field has been a wonderful home, needing only modest renovations and changes
over 40 years. And it has brought together her loving and diverse family for many years of
reunions and special events. Rachel and Matt were married in the barn and Rachel’s daughter
Juniper started life in the house. Geoffrey’s wedding was celebrated in a tent in the
meadow during a thunderstorm. Alison and her family discovered there how much they loved
Maine and eventually bought their own home in nearby Bremen.
Emily and Rachel have moved to Maine, and Tory loves spending time here. Pat’s family has grown from her five children to include eight grandchildren — Lucy, Jasper, Harry, Max, Phoenix, Emerson, Juniper and
Streeter — who also gather as they can. David’s contribution is abundant nieces, nephews, and
cousins.
Pat adamantly forbade any public memorial but her many friends, former students and
family members have responded with personal tributes and reminiscences.
Hall Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Thomaston, 78 Main Street, Thomaston has care of the arrangements. To extend online condolences to Pat's family please visit her Book of Memories at hallfuneralhomes.com.