Thomas Farrell: Family’s fund nets $77K in honor of Maine educator’s lifelong impact

KENNEBUNK, Maine — Moments after his father died, Lucas Farrell stepped outside the hospice center and felt something he had never really felt before.

He felt tiny.

“It was a temporary feeling, but it was because I had just lost someone who always made me feel bigger and important and of value,” Farrell, 42, of Vermont, said during a recent interview.

Thomas Farrell, a former RSU 21 superintendent, beloved Maine educator and family man, died on March 17. He was 77. Just like he did with Lucas and his two other sons, Thomas, 44, of Minneapolis, and Nicholas, 39, of Yarmouth, Farrell made everyone he met feel bigger, important and valuable.

“That is who he was,” Lucas said. “He made people feel that way. That’s how he treated people too.”

And now, thanks to a new fund to which many already have donated generously, Farrell’s family will be able to continue to make others feel acknowledged and supported.

The Farrell family — Lucas, his brothers, and their mother, Deborah, of Kennebunk — is in the process of establishing the Future Leaders of Maine Fund as a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping young people pursue their goals and realize their potential.

The family has started raising funds through an online GoFundMe page and plans to switch their donating mechanism to their new website, drtomfarrell.com, according to Lucas. The family started with a fundraising goal of around $25,000, he added. As of earlier this week, close to $77,539 has been raised.

Lucas said he and his family are considering administering the funds as a scholarship for young people graduating from high school.

“Dad dedicated his life to helping students,” he said. “A scholarship in his memory could help students go to college.”

Recipients would be students who may not have the means to attend college or have the support network needed to do so, according to Lucas.

“And somebody who reflects the qualities we knew in my father – compassion, love of community-building, a belief in the power of athletics and extracurricular activities, and a commitment to a drug-free, whole-person concept,” Lucas added.

More: RSU 21 School Board OKs post-Labor Day back-to-school start in Kennebunk after backlash

Keeping Thomas Farrell's memory alive

Farrell spent more than 50 years in the field of education. Locally, he served as superintendent of RSU 21 for several years in the early 2000s, according to Lucas. Throughout his career, he taught, served as an administrator, and held the position of superintendent of other school districts in Maine, Colorado and even Taiwan.

“Teachers are very important people in the lives of children. That is why I love our profession and what I do. We can play a role in the well-being of every student and even help save some,” he once wrote.

Farrell also was a national leader in drug prevention education and consulted for many years with the FBI, DEA, and Major League Baseball International, as well as the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. State Department, according to his obituary.

He derived true happiness from helping others, his family said on their GoFundMe page.

“I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve,” he said to others.

Farrell wrote a memoir during the final years of his life and presented it to his family just days before he died.

Well over 100,000 words, the memoir captures Farrell’s life as a “sports-obsessed and mischievous kid growing up in the ‘Brick Park’ section of Rumford,” a college athlete at the University of Maine, and as an educator, a drug-prevention spokesperson, and overall leader.

“We consider it the most incredible gift,” the family wrote on its GoFundMe page. “We are in the process of preparing the manuscript for publication.”

The family said it plans to print 500 copies and hand them out to family and friends at Farrell’s Celebration of Life event in Portland on May 25. The family added that it will use a small portion of the raised GoFundMe contributions for the printing costs, as “sharing his wonderful words with the world will also help ensure his memory lives on.”

Lucas said he and his family are grateful for all the donations to the fund and, most importantly, for the outpouring of love and support they have received in recent weeks. Lucas added that the family has received messages from teachers and administrators whom Farrell had impacted in positive and lasting ways.

“It was just so heartwarming and uplifting for all of us to receive those messages,” Lucas said.

Farrell helped people who needed help and perspective when it came to realizing their worth, Lucas said. He always found time for family and for people from his work life, often blending the two, and never at any expense of one to the other, Lucas added.

“He had the capacity to love more than anyone I know,” Lucas said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Family starts fund in honor of late Maine educator Tom Farrell