A Life of Service, Wit, and Wisdom
It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of our friend and longtime colleague, John Farley, who recently passed. John spent fifteen years at Family Service of Rhode Island, but his impact on Rhode Island’s children and families spans a career of more than five decades.
A lawyer by training, John came up during a formative era in Rhode Island’s human services landscape — a time when many of the systems we now take for granted, including juvenile probation, DCYF, and DHS, were first taking shape. John led a Medicaid fraud unit and later served at DCYF in several roles, most notably as a Regional Director. By the time he arrived at FSRI in 2005, he had already accomplished more than most do in a lifetime.
At FSRI, John served as a Vice President, overseeing children’s services and lending his sharp legal mind to strategic projects across the agency. He became the person colleagues turned to on the thorniest questions of provider contracts, compliance, and service financing — an expert in Rhode Island law and children’s services whose knowledge seemed bottomless. John worked at FSRI until his retirement in 2020.
John was a man who cared deeply about vulnerable children and families, and who spent his entire professional life making Rhode Island a better place for them. His fingerprints are on systems, policies, and programs that will continue serving families for generations.
All of us at Family Service of Rhode Island extend our deepest condolences to John’s family, friends, and the many colleagues across Rhode Island whose lives and careers he shaped.
Rest easy, John. We hope the music is loud, the cars are fast, and nobody’s making you sit through a meeting.