Follow
My friend and mentor Doctor Larry Farnsworth, passed away on March 15, 2011, in Trinity, Texas, I had no knowledge that Larry Farnsworth had passed away. Larry Farnsworth and I exchanged many telephone calls throughout 1994, 1995, and 1996....about Unity Colleges degree programs....the three programs that i was most interested in was the Fish and Wildlife program, the Urban Forestry Program, and the Conservation Law Enforcement program. Larry had a Bachelors degree from Brigham Young University in Zoology, a Masters degree from Sam Houston State University in Criminal Justice,, and a Doctorate Degree in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University. He was a former Game Warden with the State of New Mexico, also a probation officer with State of Texas (I can not remember that fact).
I was in the process of trying to return to school to attempt to obtain my bachelors degree in some kind of environmental science related discipline....I was undecided which school i was going to try....return to Paul Smith's College (New York), or try Environmental School of science and Forestry (New York), or Cortland State University (New York), or Sheldon Jackson College (Alaska), or Unity College (Maine). My top picks were either Paul Smith's College (again), or Sheldon Jackson College, or Unity College...my preference choice was Unity College and it's bachelor degree in Conservation Law Enforcement.
I ended up trying out Cortland State University in the Recreational Resource Management Program, my financial aid package for Cortland State University ended up being screwed up by the folks within the said schools financial aide office....I was forced to pull out of Cortland State...because the lack of financial aide that i was promised but never retained. After this administrative botch at Cortland State that caused me to leave this school. I immediately applied and was accepted at Unity College, in it's Conservation Law Enforcement program.
Larry Farnsworth was the program chair and senior instructor on the Conservation Law Enforcement Staff at Unity College, I had him for such classes as Introduction to criminal Justice, Introduction to Conservation Law Enforcement, Interpersonal Relations, and Firearms Training. College President Wilson Hess, Dr. Larry Farnsworth, and Associate Instructor Grant Estell served as my advisory panel during the planning, development, and implementation of my Conservation Law Enforcement Cooperative Education Internship...which was joint venture between Unity College, Northport Village (Maine), and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center...where I would participate in law enforcement training known as the Criminal Investigator School (Internship was worth fifth-teen semester credit hours).
The last time saw Larry Farnsworth was in the spring of 2001, when I was required to returned to Unity College main campus to complete my final requirements of my Cooperative Internship Project...in which I had to develop a written Law Enforcement Operation Manual of Policy and Guidelines for Northport Village, also a written journal containing daily entries about my training objectives, activities, and other related events I would exposed to during my police training at the Criminal Investigator School in the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center....and finally I had to perform a open forum presentation to Unity College's administrator, instructional staff and any interested members of the student body. It was Larry Farnsworth that sign off that i had completed all my internship goals, objectives and other requirements, so that i would get my semesters worth of college credit.
After, the Spring of 2001, I would never see Larry again in person...I would occasionally converse with him either by telephone or email contact....the last conversation we had with each other ....was about the possibly that Unity College may be in the process of planning, developing, implementing a degree completion program by either complete virtual means or by hybrid means of combination on campus based seminars, workshops, online classwork, and coopertive education internships.... for either non-traditional adult learners or for students like me that left Unity College early to return to the workforce.
Unity College has finally done it! The school now has a virtual degree programs geared to Conservation Law Enforcement...a Bachelors degree In Environmental Criminal Justice and a Master degree in in Conservation Law Enforcement. I believe Larry Farnsworth was involved with laying to foundation for these virtual programs existence.
Well my old mentor and friend...I am sorry that I never got to see you again personally....or being able to say my final goodbyes to you....if I had knowledge of your passing.... I would have tried to at least send my final condolences to your family!
Farewell my old Friend....respectfully Rod Petrie!!!