On this special edition of A Public Affair, we remembered Gene and Linda Farley. Two people that not only had a positive impacted on the Madison area, but also those around them.
On Monday December 2nd, we celebrated the lives of physicians and social activists Gene and Linda Farley, who moved to Madison in 1982, and left a lasting legacy in our community. Gene, who passed away in early November, and Linda, who preceded him in death four years ago, were prolific in their advocacy on behalf of national health care reform, environmental issues, racial and economic justice, media reform, and peace. As physicians, the Farleys helped to create the discipline of “family practice medicine” now being followed by as many as 100,000 or more physicians worldwide.
On September 16 of this year, Gene appeared on A Public Affair, on a show about people who had attended the 1963 March on Washington.
Shedd Farley, one of the couple’s five sons, joined us on the phone from his home in Colorado, and US Senator Tammy Baldwin offered her thoughts in a taped commentary. Our guests in-studio included community leaders and longtime Farley friends Joe and Joann Elder, Omie Baldwin (board president of the Farley Center), grandson Chad Farley (a UW-Madison law student and member of the Farley Center board), Janet Parker (Farley Center staff), State Senator Mark Miller, and former UW-Madison Medical School Family Medicine director John Frey.
For more information on the ongoing legacy of the Farleys, as exemplified by the work of the Linda & Gene Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability here.
You can also read APA host John Quinlan’s tribute to Gene and Linda Farley that appeared in mid-November in the Madison Times.
Our News Director Molly Stentz also published a short article on Gene Farley a couple of weeks ago for the blog, “Gene Farley Remembered.”
