Reed Farrington 1938 - 2014 Reed Farrington was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1938. He was then raised and schooled on the Eastern seaboard. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, he spent six years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War. Upon leaving the service, he attended the San Francisco Art Institute for 18 months and was a painter ever after. Farrington credits San Francisco abstract painter Richard Diebenkorn as one of his earliest influences, along with many of the American abstract expressionists. Reed was best known for his landscapes and figurative works in oil. Farrington married Jeanne Blaha in Searchlight, Nevada. He resided on the Monterey Peninsula from 1963 until his passing in December of 2014. Making his home and studio in Big Sur, he was juried into the Carmel Art Association in 1971. He served on the CAA’s Board of Directors several times and was President of the Board in 1979. Reed’s closest Army comrades recall what a tough time their friend had in Vietnam. After their tours were over, they visited Reed at his modest little house. They remember how humble he was, often stating that he did not deserve the Silver Star he received for action overseas as a junior Army officer. His friends felt he should have earned the Medal of Honor for his bravery. He saved the lives of three fellow soldiers when the pilot of the Huey helicopter he was in was shot and killed by gunfire from the ground. Reed heroically took the controls and somehow landed the chopper while receiving fire from the enemy below. All four men were rescued by friendly troops. Upon Reed’s death in 2014, his ex-wife Jeanne Blaha wrote, “Reed did not want an obituary, but I decided to write one anyway and still be true to his request. I wrote it myself in about 30 seconds. It seemed to sum up everything, since he did not want to be remembered as a Vietnam vet, but rather as a person who tried to bring light to his friends.” Jeanne also shared that back at Annapolis, Reed had made up a story about his birthplace being not Detroit but rather, Kiwi Valley, Georgia, a place that does not exist. A few years after Reed and Jeanne married, he decided to say he had been born in Parker, Arizona instead, because it also had a much better ring to it than Detroit. As Jeanne put it, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” And so, Farrington’s obituary and his askart.com listing both state that Reed was born in Parker, Arizona.