BONNERS FERRY — A fond farewell via a retirement party complete with cake, balloons, and refreshments was happening all day Friday, Sept. 27, inside the Pace-Kerby & Co., Inc. Real Estate office.

Joe Farrell, Bonners Ferry real estate agent, friend, and property confidant to many, has decided to retire.

Farell has been with Pace-Kerby & Co. for 22 years and a few months. He says, “it’s been a better career than I would have ever dreamed of.”

“I came to Bonners Ferry with four children and a handicapped wife and getting involved with the Pace Kerby real estate office was a blessing,” Farrell said. “It’s been a blessing beyond words.”

Farrell’s mother was a successful real estate professional in California, though he decided he did not want to enter into a real estate career at that time, so in 1970, when Farrell turned 20 years old, he moved to Oregon and worked in construction.

Farrell’s mother wanted him to work in her successful office and take over the real estate work there. He decided California real estate was not for him, even though the market was good in California.

“I didn’t want to be there (in California), It was the hippie era, the late 1960s. I just had a lot of questions, I was a searcher,” Farrell explains.

Farrell ended up in Bonners Ferry, and has enjoyed a long, happy career, building a stable and satisfying community for himself and his family.

Farrell came to reside in the Bonners Ferry area from 1982-88 then left to Oregon for 8 years to work as a production manager at a nursery. He came back to Bonners Ferry, from Oregon, in 1996 and decided to get into real estate with the Pace-Kerby & Co. office.

Adrian Brian, Farrell’s long-time friend, was present at the party, along with Darrell Kerby and Chuck Fox, who Farrell said, “...is one of my favorite customers.” Many stories were told of the fond memories of Joe Farrell’s impact to the many lives he had touched within his Realtor career to include each of theirs.

When asked what his future plans are, Farrell said, “I like to garden and travel,” he also plans to enjoy his newly built home with his wife, Nancy.

“I do canning, food preserving, drying and fermented foods, I like to fish and take care of my orchard,” Farrell stated in response to the activities he has planned for his retirement.

Farrell’s future has a lot of travel planned as well. Farrell has a daughter who lives in Germany, who he would like to visit soon, and another adult child who lives in Vermont. Ferrell says he will also be travelling to Norway and Sweden.