The remembrances continue to pour in for our dear friend, Farish. Another list of remembrances can be seen here on the Harvard Organismic and Evolutionary Biology Website.
Additonally, a memorial service will be held tomorrow at Harvard’s Memorial Church starting at 2:30 PM with a reception to follow. Details from Harvard are below:
Please gather with us to celebrate the life and accomplishments of an extraordinary
teacher, mentor and friend.
Saturday, December 1st
2:30 in the afternoon
Memorial Church
Harvard Yard, Cambridge
Reception to follow
Harvard Museum of Natural History
26 Oxford Street
Parking will be available in the garage at 52 Oxford Street (entrance at the corner of Oxford and Everett Streets.) Please tell the parking attendant you are attending the service.
Campus map: http://www.map.harvard.edu/
Area hotels: http://www.campustravel.com/university/harvardvisitors/
Questions: memorials@oeb.harvard.edu or 617-495-2460
Remembering Farish Jenkins, Jr. 
I took classes from Farish in the late 1970s, as a Biology major. Yep, over 30 years ago. I was writing my undergraduate thesis on bird skulls, and near the end, it was a struggle. He would see me writing in the lab in the evenings and give me words of encouragement, and one time he joked and said, he would make my finished thesis memorable, if I finished. We laughed. A month later, I graduated. As we meek undergraduates all stood in our robes by the side of the walkway, and watched the faculty march in, suddenly Farish saw me, broke ranks with all the rest of the faculty, and in front of everyone, ran over to me, pulled out a huge bouquet of roses from under his gown, gave them to me, kissed my cheek, and ran back to march in solemnly with the rest of the faculty.
Isn’t that classic Farish?
That memory has made me smile for over 30 years, and he inspired me to treat my own undergraduates now with random acts of unexpected kindness from time to time. Farish, see you on the other side.
By: Kate on December 5, 2012
at 9:17 pm
It’s amazing, the more stories that are shared, the more one realizes how he made everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, feel like they were his only friend in the world. And it was all genuine.
I had a similar story I should share here as well. During my graduation in 2008, he told me that I should also look for him during the procession of the faculty. When he saw me, he pulled out not flowers, but a miniature scroll, tied neatly in a crimson ribbon, which contained the speech he gave to the Faculty which led to Larry Summers’ demise as president, signed with a nice note. I still have that signed parchment and I’ll have to post it up here!
By: showmestrength on December 6, 2012
at 8:11 am