Portland, Ore.
Matthew Olin Farrar, 37 years old, of Portland, Oregon passed away at home on June 18, 2022. Matthew was born on Nov. 17, 1984, in North Conway, New Hampshire and moved to Blue Hill at the age of four with his mother, Susan, father, Tim, and brother, Aron. It was in Blue Hill that Matthew grew up with some of his closest friends.
Matthew graduated from George Stevens Academy and attended Southern Maine Community College. He then moved to the Virgin Islands, where he lived on his sailboat and earned his livelihood by fishing and painting houses. It was one night while watching the stars that he decided that working on boats and traveling the world was the life he would pursue. Matthew began his career as an unlicensed merchant seaman by following the Hawespiper progression path. After six years of accumulating enough sea time, taking the required training courses and passing a comprehensive license examination, Matthew was licensed as an officer by the U.S. Coast Guard as a third assistant engineer.
After his most recent job on the President Roosevelt, he had achieved the rank of second assistant engineer.
Matthew had an immense enthusiasm to seek out new experiences and lifelong learning. His job allowed him to visit many different countries and states. Japan, South Korea, Panama, Alaska, Louisiana, Virginia, South Carolina, Washington State, California, Georgia and Texas, to name a few. He traveled solo to Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam (where he volunteered in an orphanage) and Columbia (where he spent a month at a Spanish immersion school). And with his future wife, Cassandra, sharing adventures in Costa Rica, Mexico and Glacier National Park. Last summer, Matthew and his friend, Jerry, fished on the south fork of the Flathead River in the Bob Marshall Wilderness of Montana. They carried their own pack rafts on a 20-mile backpack trip. After the hike, they floated 65 miles in the back country, “catching native Montana cutthroat and bull trout. Using flies.”
After a courtship of six years, Matthew and Cassandra were married this past May of 2022 in Savanah, Georgia, a city that they both loved.
Matthew touched many lives, and he will be missed by all who knew him. As his friend Patrick said, “Matt’s laughter was loud, persistent and infectious. You couldn’t stop him when you got him going.” With a smile and sense of humor that entertained us all, he was loving and he was loved.
Matthew leaves behind his wife, Cassandra Tomseth; mother, Susan (Beverly) Farrar; father, W. Timothy Farrar; brother, Aron Farrar and his wife Samantha (Schulte) Farrar; his nephews, Lochlan and August Farrar, and his extended family.
A celebration of Matthew’s life will be held on Aug. 20, 2022, from 4 to 8 p.m. at The Farmhouse Inn on Pleasant Street in Blue Hill, Maine.