Terry Farmer, a well-known Springfield photographer and longtime supporter of Sacred Heart-Griffin High School and local charities, died Nov. 7 at Springfield Memorial Hospital.
Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon said Farmer was pronounced dead in the hospital’s emergency room at 8:22 p.m following a medical emergency at Maldaner’s Restaurant in downtown Springfield.
“He was a person of faith. He was a family person and a person for our community,” said Bill Moredock, president of Sacred Heart-Griffin.
Farmer’s photography business offered family and senior portraits, business and commercial photography, aerial images and restoration of old photographs. Terry and his wife, Sandy, received the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce’s Diamond Lifetime Award in 2015, recognizing the longevity of their business and its contributions to commerce and the community. Terry Farmer Photography was also a recipient of Springfield Business Journal’s Fifteen Under 15 small business award in 2003.
Farmer graduated from Griffin High School in 1977, earned an associate degree from Springfield College in 1979 and received a bachelor’s degree in communications from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1981. SHG inducted him into its Hall of Fame in 2009.
Moredock, who had known Farmer for more than 30 years, remembered him as a familiar presence at school events and athletic contests, often with a camera in his hand.
“He did all the school pictures, did all the sports pictures,” Moredock said.
Farmer’s service extended beyond his photography. According to the school’s Hall of Fame biography, he accompanied students on service trips to Appalachia during three summers, helping low-income residents repair and maintain their homes. He also photographed Operation Smile’s surgical work in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in 2007.
Inspired by the Appalachian trips, he organized SHG Works. The school credited the project with bringing together 200 students, faculty members and parents to improve 20 houses on Springfield’s east side during a single weekend.
Farmer also was active in Knights of Columbus Council 364. “He’s the face of the KCs in many ways, him and his buddies,” Moredock said.
Moredock met with Farmer as recently as the Thursday before his death. They were discussing a collaboration between SHG and the Knights of Columbus for the following year’s Oktoberfest.
Terry and Sandy Farmer recently established a scholarship for incoming SHG students, Moredock said. Its purpose reflected Farmer’s memories of his own high school years.
During a meeting to discuss the scholarship, Moredock said, Farmer remembered himself as a student who had plenty of friends but did not stand out academically.
“I wasn’t distinguished by anything,” Moredock recalled Farmer saying.
Farmer wanted the scholarship to help a student who might still be finding a direction during high school, Moredock said.
“To me, that was a unique perspective. It’s something I did not know about Terry Farmer,” Moredock said.
Moredock described Farmer as “just a vibrant, upbeat, positive person who was always willing to lend support to worthy causes.” Sacred Heart-Griffin, he said, was among Farmer’s most cherished causes.
He said the school would miss Farmer’s personality as well as his support, recalling his willingness “to do what he can to make Springfield a better community, and he did that in spades.”
According to the obituary, there will be no funeral service, in honor of Farmer’s wishes. The family will host a celebration of life from 3-6 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 14, at the Knights of Columbus, 2200 Meadowbrook Road, Springfield. Dress is casual and food and drinks will be available.