Finis King Farr, D.D., was Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament Interpretation in the Theological School from September, 1895, to May, 1909. He was one of Cumberland's best products and filled a large place in the history of the institution in which he taught. His student days, filled as they were with worthy achievement, are remembered still. His fourteen years as a Professor, with his unusual teaching ability, his keenness of insight and power of lucid statement, made the pursuit of knowledge under his direction worth while.

This gifted teacher was born in College Mound, Missouri, November 11, 1870, being the son of a noted father, William Benton Farr, D.D. He entered Cumberland University as a student in 1887, and became a graduate of the Department of Engineering in 1889. After his graduation he spent three years as a civil engineer, and then decided to enter the ministry. In September, 1892, he entered the Theological School of Cumberland University, and was graduated with the B.D. degree in June, 1894. Later he received the A.B. degree as of the class of 1889. In April, 1894, he was elected Professor in the Theological School, with the understanding that he was to spend a year or more in postgraduate study in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. This course he pursued, taking his principal work under such men as William Rainey Harper and Ira M. Price. His work in Chicago had to do chiefly with biblical Hebrew and other Old Testament studies, and it was to these subjects he was assigned when he took up his work in Cumberland University.

After beginning his work in Cumberland, Dr. Farr spent several summer quarters in study at Chicago University, from which he received the A.M. degree in 1911. Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Missouri, conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1906. It was regarded as a privilege to hear him in the classroom or elsewhere.

In the year, 1909-10, he was a teacher in the Presbyterian Seminary in the South. In 1910 he became a Professor in Lane Theological Seminary, in which institution he labored until his death, July 29, 1929.

[Source: The History of Cumberland University, 1842-1935. By Winstead Paine Bone. Lebanon, Tennessee: By the author, 1935, pages 238-239]

Ministerial Necrology
Name: Finis Farr, D.D.
Occupation: Prof.
Presbytery: Cincinnati
Place of Death: Cincinnati, Ohio
Date of Death: July 29, 1929
Age: 58

[Source: Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., 1930, page 558]