Jefferson County Clerk Rick Farrar Announces Retirement After 35 Years of Service

Jefferson County Clerk, Rick Farrar – Staff Photo by Jacquelyn Muncy

For 35 years, Rick Farrar has served as the Jefferson County Court Clerk; this year, he has decided to hang up his hat and retire.

When he was first elected in 1978, there were three typewriters in his office. To create a title on a vehicle, Farrar and his staff would work on these typewriters for hours upon hours. It wasn’t until several years later that they gained the ability to work on live internet on computers. This helped Rick’s process drastically in that what used to take all day could now be done in seconds. Rick transformed the office to have the capability to create or replace titles instantly. Another change in Farrar’s office was the sheer amount of cases. When he first started, Farrar dealt with one child support and one to two juvenile cases a month, now he handles hundreds.

As county court clerk, some of Farrar’s responsibilities include marriage, boat, fishing, and vehicle licensing. The biggest challenge Farrar faced as newly elected court clerk was learning all of the extensive laws and keeping current with them, as they change every year. His advice to whoever will replace him is this: “Be prepared for a lot of learning and reading. There’s a lot to know about running this department.”

Farrar is ready for his well deserved retirement; he said now he is going to travel, specifically around the US and Europe. He said it was a “good job, and [he was] very lucky to have it all these years,” and although he may have had to deal with a few complicated situations and dissatisfied customers, he thinks that “the good outweighs the bad, and it was a joy to have worked with the public and solve problems.”

Rick states his only sadness is that his “dad will not be here to see [him] retire, because he was instrumental in who [he] became as a public servant,” and Jefferson County can agree that Farrar has served the public exceptionally well.