Update: This story has been updated to include information about memorial services.
Robert "Bob" Farrell, who co-founded a popular chain of ice cream parlors that were the home of countless children's birthday parties, died Friday in Vancouver after an extended illness.
His death was announced by Farrell's Ice Cream Parlours on its Facebook page late Friday. The company said Farrell passed away with his wife, Ramona, and family by his side. He was 87.
Farrell, who was originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., opened the first Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour in Portland in 1963. By 1970, he had opened 55 shops throughout the West. The chain later expanded to more than 130 shops after it was sold to the Marriot Corp. in 1973, and Farrell remained the company's spokesman until just prior to its sale to an investment group in 1985. Several Farrell's still operate in Southern California under a new company.
Later, Farrell became a part owner of Pacific Coast Restaurants Inc., and helped build a string of Stanford's and Newport Bay restaurants in Oregon, Washington and Northern California. In 1995, Farrell left the restaurant business and became a customer service consultant, speaking to employees of companies, such as Nordstrom, Nike and Safeway about putting customers' interests first.
And Farrell loved to talk about customer service, including an infamous anecdote about a diner who once was charged for an extra pickle at one of his restaurants.
In the story, a regular customer had been receiving a free extra pickle whenever he asked for it, and was angered when a new waitress charged him a nickel for the extra pickle. The customer wrote Farrell, saying he would stop coming to the restaurant because of the charge.
Farrell made amends with the customer by writing him a letter and offering a free ice cream sundae. The phrase "Give 'em the pickle" became a customer service motto for the company.
"The customer is the boss," Farrell said in 1989 recalling the incident. "There are three little words we always want them to say -- 'I'll be back.' There's not a better job in the world than making someone happy."
Farrell was born in 1927 in Brooklyn, and joined the Air Force in 1945 after graduating from high school. After World War II ended, he served at radar stations in the Pacific Northwest. After completing his business degree, he worked as a salesman and manager for the Libby Foods company before opening his first ice cream parlor in Portland in 1963. Farrell made an appearance in TV's "The Merv Griffin Show," and in 1976 he received the Horatio Alger Award from Norman Vincent Peale. At one point, Farrell's held the record for the World's Largest Sundae in the Guinness Book of Records.
Farrell's ice cream shops had an old-fashioned feel to them, and were a popular spot for birthday celebrations, which featured free sundaes and waiters singing "Happy Birthday."
One of the stories he would tell in his customer service presentations involved a birthday party gone awry not long after the first Farrell's opened. An upset customer came to pay his bill. Farrell learned that the man's son was celebrating his sixth birthday, but nobody had given him his free sundae or sung "Happy Birthday."
Farrell went straight to the fountain and made a sundae, topping it with a birthday candle. Then he asked the boy his name, stood up on a table and yelled for everybody in the restaurant to be quiet.
"We made a mistake," Farrell said. "We didn't sing 'Happy Birthday' to Alex, and I want all of you to help us sing it now."
The result was one ecstatic boy who became a loyal customer. Farrell said he continued to see Alex years later, and that he still had the birthday photo taken at the restaurant.
"I didn't sell ice cream," Farrell said of his years with the ice cream parlors. "I sold a good time. Ice cream was the vehicle."
Farrell is survived by his wife, Ramona, three daughters, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
A celebration of Farrell's life will be held at 3 p.m. Sept. 13 at New Heights Church's main campus, 7913 N.E. 58th Ave., Vancouver. In lieu of flowers, the family requests remembrances to Young Life or the Dementia Society of America.
-- Grant Butler
503-221-8566; @grantbutler