The following obituary was written by Mr. Farwell’s son, Francis C. Farwell III.

Francis C. (Frank) Farwell II, former Lake Forest mayor and the last local namesake of one of the City’s founders, died early Sunday morning, Nov. 21, at his home in Lake Forest at age 88. Mr. Farwell was a charismatic, veteran partner with William Blair and Company of Chicago, whose investment banking career spanned nearly 60 years.

Born May 12, 1922 to Edith Foster Farwell and Albert Day Farwell, he attended the Pomfret School in Pomfret, Connecticut, and then Yale University, from which he graduated in 1944, and where his wit and keen mind led to acquaintances with future public servants President George Bush Sr., New York Mayor John Lindsay, U.S. Senator John Chafee (Rhode Island), and Secretary of State Cyrus Vance.

Mr. Farwell’s college years were interrupted by World War II, during which he served three years in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He rose to the rank of first lieutenant and piloted various troop transport aircraft between tiny coral airstrips in the Pacific, often unprotected from faster-flying Japanese fighters. Dodging into nearby clouds and changing direction was his only defense.

His six-decade career in Chicago’s financial services industry began with a position at Farwell Chapman, a small firm co-founded by his father. He spent 13 years there and became partner, and then in 1960 joined William Blair & Company.

Concurrent with his years at Blair he served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Midwest Stock Exchange from 1973 to 1976; on the Securities Industry Association’s governing council, 1977-1979; the National Securities Clearing Corporation board of directors, 1979-1983; and on the boards of the Chicago Botanic Garden, Chicago Zoological Society, Shedd Aquarium, YMCA of Chicago; the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission; 52 years on the board of Lake Forest College, the last 21 as a life trustee; CROYA Foundation of Lake Forest; Lake Forest Open Lands, from 1982 onward and as president from 1990-1993; and Lake Forest Bank.

In his hometown of Lake Forest, 30 miles north of Chicago, he served as an alderman from 1976-1982, and as mayor, 1984-1987–following his great grandfather John V. Farwell, who was mayor from 1871-1872, and his father, Albert, mayor in 1931-1934.

As mayor in the mid-1980’s, Farwell oversaw the spectacularly successful restoration of Lake Forest Beach, was responsible for acquiring the historic Ragdale property, and was instrumental, along with Lake Forest College President Gene Hotchkiss, in dramatically expanding CROYA (Lake Forest’s Committee Representing Our Young Adults).

Mr. Farwell was an accomplished tennis and squash racquets competitor. Along with long-time doubles partner Loomis Lincoln, also of Lake Forest, he was Illinois State Squash Doubles Champion, and occasionally competed at the national level. He was also an avid golfer, hunter and fisherman.

In 1950 he and his wife, Jean Campbell Farwell, purchased 14 acres on the northwest, then-rural edge of Lake Forest, complete with a 1923 vintage farmhouse that soon became infamous for its perennially leaky roofs, flooding basement, frozen pipes and squirrels in the attics–as well as an antique player piano. The home became a beloved counterpoint to Mr. Farwell’s daily urban life in Chicago. He belted out Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Go Home and other songs from the 1930s and 1940s on the player piano after dinner, happily tolerated the squirrels, ET. Al. and loved living on the edge of the country in the golden post-war years of the Eisenhower Administration, and for 50 years afterward.

He and Mrs. Farwell spent much of their lives nurturing flower and vegetable gardens and enjoying the surrounding oak forest, as well their menagerie of dogs, horses, rabbits, ducks, pony, goat, pig–even two wild raccoons that commuted in an out of his daughters’ windows and became part of the family. Mrs. Farwell died in 1999, and ten years later, in December of 2009, the homestead burned to a total loss. Mr. Farwell moved to a cottage in a community near Lake Forest Hospital in the spring of this year, with his livestock by then reduced to one devoted Labrador retriever.

He is survived by four children: Marion Farwell, of Mill Valley, California; Susan Farwell Houston, of Craftsbury Common, Vermont; Francis C. Farwell III, of Marquette, Michigan; and Edith Foster Farwell, of Hartland, Vermont; and eight grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. December 11th, at the First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, with a reception following at the Onwentsia Club.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, contributions be sent to Lake Forest Open Lands Association.