Robert “Bob” Farrell, the man who founded a popular chain of ice cream parlors bearing his name and became an evangelist for providing outstanding customer service, died Saturday in Vancouver.
His death was announced by Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlours on its Facebook page. The company said Farrell passed away with his wife, Ramona, and family by his side. He was 87.
“Bob, I believe, is the Walt Disney of restaurants,” said Michael Fleming, Farrell’s CEO. “They were two of the same: visionaries, taking care of the customers, all about perfection, all about cleanliness, all about happiness, smiling faces. Truly, he was the Walt Disney of restaurants.”
Farrell, originally a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., settled in Vancouver later in life. He adopted the city as his own, said former Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard.
“He was a nice man and had a wonderful wife,” Pollard said Saturday. “Very friendly, very outgoing. They participated in every event in Esther Short Park.”
Farrell had worked in sales for more than a decade when he followed his dream and opened the first Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour in Portland in 1963, offering a high-energy venue for celebration with a turn-of-the-century feel.
By 1970, the company had expanded to 58 restaurants. The company was sold to the Marriott Corp. in the early 1970s, and he continued to work with Marriott as the chain grew to 130 locations nationwide.
“The guy was obviously a pioneer in what he did,” Pollard said. “He believed in customer service.”
In 1976, Farrell received the Horatio Alger Award from Norman Vincent Peale.
Farrell left the company just prior to its sale from Marriott to a San Francisco investment group in 1985. The new owners closed most of the locations, but a new company based in Orange County, Calif., with Farrell serving as a consultant, has started working to bring the chain back.
“Bob was a mentor and dear friend to Michael Fleming and Paul Kramer, who brought Farrell’s back in 2009 after the company closed in the early ’90s,” the new company said on its Facebook page.
“Bob was an incredible man. It was an honor to have crossed paths with him,” Fleming said.
Farrell also founded the Newport Bay and Stanford’s restaurants, became a motivational speaker focusing on how to motivate employees to provide outstanding customer service. He authored a book titled after his self-described customer service “war cry” — “Give ’em the pickle … and they’ll be back!”
“I spent most of my life as ‘the ice cream guy’, I end up as ‘the pickle guy,’ ” Farrell joked on a website promoting his philosophy. “Ice cream and pickles, go figure.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
