Cal Farley
Sometimes in life, we encounter remarkable individuals who have overcome almost overwhelming odds to become extraordinary in the eyes of those they have influenced as well as in the eyes of the world. Often, these individuals do their work in such a subtle way that they become well-known only when they die and leave a very big space to be filled by a successor. One person who has the potential to be such a person is Cal Farley, who I believe is deserving of the 20th Century Genius Award for his work to improve humanity and the world in which he lived.
According to Hendrickson, Cal Farley was born on Christmas day in 1895 at Saxton, Iowa. He had a twin sister Zaida, and together they were the youngest of six children. The parents' marriage was loveless and ended in separation, leaving the children without much of the nurture that should be expected from parents. For this reason, young Cal soon learned to find solace in other things such as sports. This was fortunate, since he discovered great athletic prowess in himself and could use this to his advantage. He was therefore already remarkable at the age of 16, when many others in his position would have crumbled, become delinquent, or succumbed to substance abuse.
After enlisting and emerging from the War, Farley continued his involvement in sports and became good at professional wrestling and minor league baseball. This was, however, not the end of the success he made of his life.
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Here, he also pioneered the department store type of merchandising as well as broadcasting a daily radio program. It appears that Farley made a success of everything he tried.
Farley's work with children began in 1934, where he gathered a few friends and started the Maverick Club. This was an organized athletics program to help young boys remain constructively occupied. This grew to become Kids Incorporated by 1966, which at the time was helping more than 10,000 boys between six and sixteen years of age. More than 1,500 adult volunteers were involved in the work. It was the boys that could not be helped by the Maverick Club that served as the inspiration for Farley's truly remarkable work of love: the Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, founded in 1939. This was an establishment for boys who lacked supervision and encouragement at home, which was the situation within which Farley himself grew up. In 1947, Farley sold his business and, with his wife, devoted his life to helping boys who were homeless and delinquent. For this, he received support from persons such as Jack Dempsey, J. Edgware Hoover, and Roy Rogers.
After a lifetime of nothing but remarkable work in the many areas of his involvement, Farley died in 1967 while attending chapel services. His wife died exactly a month later and they are both buried in Amarillo.
While Farley displayed genius…
