Robert E. "Bob" Farrell (1927 – 2015 )
Robert "Bob" Farrell, founder of Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour,
died Friday the 14th. He was born in Brooklyn in 1927 and
raised in an orphanage. He served in the Air Force in 1945.
Farrell worked multiple jobs in the food service industry, where
he moved up the ladder as a salesman for Libby Foods, the
once-competitor of Heinz Foods. He opened the first store in
Portland, Ore. in 1963.
Farrell lived in Vancouver, Washington and is survived by his
wife, Mona, his three daughters and eight grandchildren.
Recalling the joy he found in Brooklyn ice cream parlours and with the help of his friend Ken McCarthy, he opened the first store in Portland, Ore. in 1963, soon after appearing in the Guinness Book of World Records for building the largest ice cream sundae.
He opened six stores within the next five years and by 1973, the chain had 55 stores, which Farrell sold to the Marriott Corporation.
Farrell remained the spokesperson for the corporation until 2001, when two Orange County entrepreneurs, Michael Fleming and Paul Kramer, decided to give the Farrell’s concept another spin. Fleming oversees eight Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlours locations, two in Orange County.
