W.D.

W.D. Farr died Monday. He was 97 years old so it's not like it was a shock, but it's still a blow to our community. I interviewed W.D. back in my newspaper days and when I first met him, I thought he was some old guy who had lost his marbles and didn't know what he was talking about. But, boy, was I wrong. He knew every fact, every date, every everything about agriculture and water in Colorado. When I interviewed Noam Chomsky back in college, I felt I was in the presense of one of the smartest people I would ever meet. W.D. Farr was the closest I ever came to that feeling again. He was a brilliant man with a great sense of humor.

As a side note, one of my favorite memories of W.D. was a few years after our interview. A rookie reporter for the Tribune had asked him a question for the weekly "Man on the Street" interview question. The reporter didn't understand W.D. when he said his name and the rookie editor didn't catch it, so it ran in the paper as "Deputy Farr." Many people gave him a badge which he happily flashed around town to show off his new title.

We'll miss you, W.D.