People First of Oregon         

Fairview's Closing Chapter

The Superintendent

Chuck Farnham worked at Fairview for 37 years, starting as a Protestant chaplain in 1961 and leaving as superintendent in 1997.

He arrived as Fairview's population peaked at about 3,000. Staff "dealt with people to the best of their ability."

"We didn't have the kind of programs that the facility eventually ended up with," he said.

The residents at Fairview changed, too.

"The level of people that the facility served by law were a great deal more capable. It wasn't until the latter '70s that there was a change that occurred across the country where you no longer admitted people who were borderline retarded by testing," he said.

By the mid-1980s, Farnham said, a "philosophic proposition" was made that everyone, not just the most capable, should be released.

Over time, he witnessed many changes, including the definition of abuse. Corporal punishment, spanking, was outlawed in 1968 although "it would have been cause for dismissal three to five years earlier," Farnham said. By the 1980s, even speaking harshly to a client was considered abuse.

Farnham thinks the costs of smaller care outlets in the community eventually will exceed those of Fairview as wages of caregivers rise. Monitoring a system of 400-plus group homes will be difficult, he said.

"I think that the challenge, managerial wise, will be much greater in the community, but I think the potential for good is boundless."