Jeffrey Lawrence Farnum

He was the great grandson of A.E. Seaman.

Jeff was born November 6, 1949, at Ft Lewis, Washington, to Jeanne Seaman Farnum and Captain Lawrence B Farnum.

When Jeff was nine months old, his father was deployed to Korea. Upon his return, the family moved to Ft. Belvoir, Virginia. Three years later they moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where Jeff started school in a French-speaking kindergarten.

After a year and half, the family moved to Urbana, Illinois, for a year and then back to Ft Belvoir for two years and to Ft Leavenworth, Kansas, for a year, where Jeff first learned to ride horses. The family then moved to Germany for three years in Heidelberg and Nurnberg. Back to Virginia for three years and finally to Ft Huachuca, Arizona, where Jeff enjoyed a passion for riding–especially a large strawberry roan, named Kalif.

In 1968, Jeff’s father now Col. Farnum, retired from the army and the family moved to Tucson. Jeff enlisted in the army in 1970 and “requested” infantry Vietnam but was sent to Germany for telecommunications.

In the meantime his father had taken a job overseeing the military installation in DaNang, Vietnam, and his mother and younger sisters moved to Singapore. After his discharge from the army, Jeff flew over to Singapore to “chaperone” his sisters through India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, to Istanbul where they met up with their parents and continued on to Frankfurt, Germany, for his older sister Joanie’s wedding, arriving with a “coffin” on top of their car containing three sitars.

In 1977, Jeff underwent the first of three brain operations to remove a large cyst growing from his brainstem, which left him blind in one eye, and later affected his short term memory. His second operation in 2004 was at the VA hospital in San Francisco. It lasted thirteen hours and he “coded” three times. He then spent time in Houghton, with his oldest sister, Donna, to recuperate from the ordeal. The third surgery took place back in Tucson several years later.

Jeff received a nursing degree from Metropolitan College in Denver and joined the Travel Nurse Corps ending up as an RN in Baltimore, Maryland, for several years.

Around 1995, he gave up his nursing career to follow his passion for scuba diving and became an instructor on the island of Roatan, Honduras.

A tall, lovely, young woman, Jacqueline Heifting, from Holland took lessons from Jeff. He was so smitten that he followed her to the mainland and convinced her to return to the island. They were married on Jeff’s 50th birthday so he would no longer celebrate birthdays, only anniversaries.

Jeff loved his family deeply. He made friends easily and truly liked people, and he loved to play cards, watch TV, and go to the casino.

Jeff is preceded in death by his father, grandparents, and two brothers-in-law.

He is survived by his mother, age 100; wife, Jacqui; five sisters, Donna Cole (Tom) of Twin Lakes; Joanie Rooker (Cal) of Tucson; Diane Woodworth (Steve) of Lake Linden; Debbie Torrence of Golden, Colorado; Pam Hoyt of Tucson and many nieces, nephews, and cousins, as well as his mother’s two brothers, Jack Seaman, age 102, and Arthur Seaman, age 83.

On November 6, we will celebrate his fifty birthdays and 22 anniversaries at Vista de la Montana Methodist Church in Oro Valley, Arizona, at 11 A.M.

Those who can attend are welcome to this celebration of Jeff’s life. It will be live-streamed at vistaumc.org