Jewette Farley
Jewette Farley was born on April 14, 1937, in Vienna, to DeCinter and Cecil Farley and passed away June 20, 2023.
He is survived by his wife, Sue Bailiff Farley; his son, Tony; daughter, Tracy Escoffier and husband Gary of New Orleans; grandchildren, Alex Viola and husband Nick of Lake Charles, Annie Roberson and husband Darrick of Dallas, and Zoe Brockman of New Orleans; great grandson, Reid Steven Viola of Lake Charles; sisters, Yvonne Turner of Early, Texas, and DeCinter Bass of San Antonio, Texas.
He is also survived by very special friends Lauren Crisostomo of Lake Charles, and Linda Ramsey of Ruston.
Mr. Farley was President and Owner of J. Farley Consulting which was available to assist local governments with all type of help with property tax administration projects. He has also served as a member of the Louisiana Tax Commission. His hobbies include writing and performing country music, collecting and refurbishing country antiques and humorous after dinner speaking.
Jewette Farley, CAE, RES and CIA. Mr. Farley was the assessor for Lincoln Parish in Ruston, having been first elected in 1976. He was responsible for valuing all types of property, both real and personal, in his jurisdiction, in addition to his duties as ad valorem tax administrator for the parish. He brought the Lincoln Parish Assessor’s Office into the twenty- first century when he computerized the records and began the first GIS mapping system for the parish. He was always so proud of his staff and often told all that he had “the best staff in the world.”
Mr. Farley has lectured and written extensively both in the U.S., Canada, and Europe on issues relating to the valuation of property and ad valorem tax administration. He has written the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) instructor’s manual for personal property and has contributed to textbooks, programs, and IAAO courses on various topics.
He has also developed many workshops and seminars on specialized topics within the personal property class, depreciation methods and fixed asset valuation, as well as seminars and workshops on property appraisal, tax policy and tax administration in general.
His appraisal education includes over 12,000 credit hours in multiple appraisal fields, both IAAO and other appraisal groups and local assessing organizations as well.
Mr. Farley holds the Certified Assessment Evaluator CAE designation, and Residential Evaluation Specialist RES of IAAO and the Certified Louisiana Assessor CIA designation of the State of Louisiana. He is a National Senior Instructor for the International Association of Assessing Officers.
This is the highest level of instructor status conferred by IAAO and is reserved for experienced instructors who have demonstrated exceptional teaching skills in the classroom. Mr. Farley has over forty years of appraisal and tax administration “hands on” experience. He is a past member of the Executive Board of IAAO and has chaired and served on most of the standing committees of IAAO.
He was selected as IAAO’s Most Valuable Member in 1995. He was recognized and awarded two of the International Association of Assessing Officers most prestigious awards in 2016 – The Instructor of Excellence Award and The Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jewette Farley, CAE was recognized as an IAAO Fellow by the International Association of Assessing Officers.
The IAAO Executive Board approved a new program for 2018 to recognize individuals who have dedicated their career to the development of our profession and made exceptional contributions to the Association and the assessment industry. The new program is known as the IAAO Fellows Program, and the International Association of Assessing Officers Fellows title will be awarded annually to recognize the best of the best within our ranks.
The prestigious title was presented during the Closing Ceremony at IAAO’s 84th Annual International Conference on Assessment Administration held September 23-26, 2018, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was awarded the first time ever Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Louisiana Assessors Association which will hereafter be awarded annually and named the Jewette Farley Lifetime Achievement Award.
Perhaps Mr. Farley’s greatest achievement in his field was he went from never having set foot in an assessor’s office to being elected to lead the largest assessment administration organization in the world – The International Association of Assessing Officers. He has also served in IAAO as Vice President, President Elect, President, and Immediate Past President.
The Family would like to give special thanks to Dr. Tyler Lash, Dr. Shane Phillips and Premier Hospice Nurse Amy Vance and CNA Jackie Wyatt.
Funeral Services will be held on Friday, June 23, 2023, at Kilpatrick Funeral Home, Ruston, at 2 p.m. with visitation beginning at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Pallbearers will be Rich Bailey, Wesley Boddie, Ben Dance, Jerry McCann, Ronnie Patterson, Gary Rodgers, Charles Harrison and Roger Gilliam.
Online condolences may be extended to the family at www. kilpatrickfuneralhomes. com.
