One of the efficient energetic young men of West Virginia who is doing good work in educational lines is Prof. Leonard Cecil Farrar, who is head of the public school at Omar in Logan County. Prof. Farrar is a native of the State, having been born at Charleston on July 28, 1884, son of Reuben Farrar, a barber. He was the son of Thomas Farrar, a pumpmaker and mechanic of Charlottesville, Va. The mother of our subject was, before her marriage, Miss Helen Porterfield, who was a teacher and who was the daughter of Eli and Charity Porterfield.
Prof. Farrar laid the foundation of his education in the public and high schools of Charleston from which he was graduated in 1900. For his normal and college work he attended Ohio University and West Virginia Collegiate Institute. He was active in athletics while in school and college.
He began teaching in the grades at Charleston in 1901. He was promoted to High School in 1911 where he taught till 1914. He was in the U. S. Railway mail service from 1917-18 when he again resumed teaching. He has had charge of the school at Omar since September 1922.
On December 24, 1913, Prof. Farrar was happily married to Miss Willie Irene Norman, daughter of Thos. H. and Josephine Norman, of Washington, D. C. They have one child--a daughter, Josephine Virginia Farrar. Prof. Farrar is an Independent in politics and was once Assistant Charter Clerk for the State of West Virginia. He belongs to the Missionary Baptist church in which he is active and prominent. He has for a long time been identified with the Y. M. C. A., the B. Y. P. U. and is active in the work of the Sunday School. Among the secret and benevolent orders he affiliates with the Pythians, Odd Fellows, and is a stockholder in the Prudential Bank and the Federal Insurance Co., Washington, D. C.
Prof. Farrar is President of the National Forum Association of Washington and is ambitious for the establishment of an educational forum in every community. He believes that the permanent progress of the race must rest on patriotism, education and thrift, for, says he, "no educated, thrifty people can be long oppressed." He is an advocate of triparte education of the head, the heart and the hands.