Farmer is president of the USNA Great Class of 1964. He grew up in Portland, OR, and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1964. After completing the Naval Nuclear Propulsion and Submarine training programs he served division officer and engineer officer assignments on SSBN’s, was the Submarine Squadron 16 Material Officer (Rota, Spain), and XO on the fast attack submarine USS Trepang (SSN 674). His Command tours were the fast attack submarine USS Richard B. Russell (SSN 687) and then Commissioning Gold CO of the USS Henry M. Jackson (SSBN 730). Following Command, he served on the CNO Staff as the deputy director of the Strategic and Theater Nuclear Warfare and Arms Control Division (OP-65B) – during this tour he attended the initial MIT Seminar XXI, was selected to the CNO’s Strategic Studies group VIII in Newport, RI, and then as assistant deputy director of the JCS J-5 Strategy and Policy Division (JCS J5 ADDSP). He retired from the Joint Staff in 1992. His awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Legion of Merit.
Farmer’s civilian career was as a member of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) serving in the Washington, DC area with Department of Energy Intelligence where he built the information warfare intelligence analytics program. In that process he developed and operated a unique data analytics Information Warfare project - Project Cascade. That lead to a 3-year interagency personal agreement assignment to the CIA as senior intelligence officer (SIS-2) as chief of the Joint Information Operations Program Office – a project created after 9/11 to sponsor research to enhance multi agency information operations capabilities. Next, at the request of the National Intelligence University, he developed and operated for the NIU a laboratory for hands on cyber instruction for NIU students. Farmer retired from PNNL in 2016.
It has been his honor to serve as president of the Class of 1964 since 2020. Beginning in the spring of 2026-he'll serve as the Council of Class Presidents decade representative for the 60’s and earlier decades.
Farmer resides in Annapolis. He married his wife Nancy, a former American Airlines stewardess and nurse. They moved together 19 times to assignments on both coasts and as far away as Hawaii and Spain. The have one son and 2 grandchildren.