Athletics Hall of Fame Ceremony to Celebrate Endowment Honoring the Farrars The James D. Farrar Jr. ’74 and Katharine Capito Farrar Endowment supports the Athletics Hall of Fame and will help fund athletics-related student opportunities.

By Amanda Minix
October 8, 2024

When Jim Farrar ’74 announced his retirement from Washington and Lee University in spring 2021, friend and emeritus member of the Board of Trustees Ben Grigsby ’72 contacted the Office of University Development to determine a philanthropic way to honor Farrar and his wife, Kitty, for their 35 years of dedicated service to W&L. The result was the creation of the James D. Farrar Jr. ’74 and Katharine Capito Farrar Endowment, with Grigsby and his wife, Carol, serving as lead donors. The endowment supports the Athletics Hall of Fame Weekend program and will also help fund athletics-related summer opportunities for students in the coming years.

“We are delighted to support the university in this way, honoring two people who have been important to the history of the university and helping students interested in a career relating to athletics,” Grigsby said. He helped garner support for the endowment from other emeriti trustees and friends who were pleased to contribute to the Farrar Endowment. Grigsby hopes others will join in as well to provide impactful opportunities for W&L students going forward. “This was really something I was thinking about along with fellow emeriti trustees,” he said. “I may have lit the fire, but the people involved were very supportive.”

Grigsby, and many others who served on the Board of Trustees, worked closely with Farrar, who managed board operations for many years. Jim Farrar graduated from W&L in 1974 and returned to work for the university in 1986 as assistant alumni director. He held various roles at Washington and Lee before becoming senior assistant to the president while serving as secretary of the university in 2002. He served as senior advisor to the president and university secretary until his retirement in December 2021, having worked with four rectors of the Board of Trustees and five university presidents during that time. He also served on the Athletics Hall of Fame Selection Committee from 1987-2021, having been inducted himself in 2006 as a member of W&L’s football and lacrosse teams. The men’s 1973 and 1974 lacrosse teams, of which he was a member, have also been inducted into W&L’s Athletics Hall of Fame. He remains engaged in athletics as a volunteer coach for the W&L women’s lacrosse team.

Kitty Capito Farrar served Washington and Lee in countless ways over the years, from hosting events on and off campus to serving as an important ambassador. During her career, she spent over 20 years as assistant director of Camp Alleghany for Girls in Lewisburg, West Virginia, where she was a mentor and taught tennis. She remains actively involved in Alleghany’s alumnae association. She has volunteered regularly within the Lexington community in a number of capacities through the years, including serving on the ConnectionsPlus Healthcare + Hospice board and as a Spanish translator for the Rockbridge County Health Department. Their daughter, Katharine, is a 2011 W&L graduate and serves as director of alumni chapter programs in the university’s Office of Alumni Engagement.

“Jimmy and I are thrilled that Ben and Carol and other alumni have chosen yet another way to support Washington and Lee University, and they are so thoughtful to have attached our names to this new endowment,” Kitty Farrar said. “This is another example of the many ways that W&L alumni and friends support the student experience and make it so special.”

The 2024 Athletics Hall of Fame Weekend will be held Oct. 11-12, and the Farrars and Grigsbys will be in attendance. Jim Farrar, a W&L athletics enthusiast to the core, has had the pleasure of witnessing its evolution over the years to become a highly regarded top-20 Division III program. “I am looking forward to celebrating the accomplishments of the Hall of Fame Class of 2024, and to generating excitement around the endowment and the things it will do for the Athletics Department, the Hall of Fame and our students — from celebrating W&L athletics’ excellent athletes, coaches and supporters to helping students explore careers in the ever-changing sports industry, as detailed so well in the Summer 2024 issue of W&L Magazine,” Jim Farrar said.

To support the James D. Farrar Jr. ’74 and Katharine Capito Farrar Endowment, give online by selecting “other” for designation and listing the endowment name in the W&L class and comments box. For more information or other giving options, contact the Office of University Development at 540-458-8410 or development@wlu.edu.