Judith “Jody” Farley has lived an adventurous life of travel, taking residence in multiple states throughout the years, including Ohio, California and Arizona, before settling in Michigan for good.
She owes this life to her parents, Hoyt and Dorothy, and the great education she acquired, which began at Bay City Junior College (BCJC). Looking for a way to best honor her parents’ legacy, and the fascinating life they provided her and her two sisters, Jody turned to the Delta College Foundation to start an endowment in their name.
“The generosity of both my parents, as well as their conservative planning, have enabled me to get a good education and consequently to wish to share my good fortune with others,” says Jody. “I’ve been thinking about doing something forever, and I just feel like it’s kind of a ‘thank you’. It just feels good to help someone else, like my parents helped me. I’m grateful I can do it.”
Jody’s father, Hoyt E. Hayes, was born February 27, 1890, in St. Louis, Missouri, but grew up in Cleveland, Ohio with his three younger siblings. Hoyt attended University School in Cleveland and went on to graduate from Yale University. He began working at Brown Hoist Co. of Cleveland at the age of 21, later transferring to Bay City, MI in 1937 after the company acquired The Industrial Works, which once stood where Uptown Bay City is now located. Hoyt was also a vital member of the Committee of 300 that founded Delta College. “Dad loved to say he started work making 17 cents an hour. For him to stay with that company— and become President—is a marvelous inspiration,” says Jody. “He was somebody you would strive to be like, and I hope an inspiring example to a student getting a scholarship—an example of what’s possible.”
Jody’s mother, Dorothy Barber, was born August 7, 1900, in Englewood, New Jersey with her six older siblings. She attended Finch Finishing School in Manhattan, “a fashionable school for girls” and alma mater of “Kick” Kennedy, Tricia Nixon Cox, Patsy Pulitzer, Grace Slick and more. Dorothy’s family owned the Barber Steamship Lines in New York. While on a trip to visit her sister in France, she met and fell in love with her brother-in-law’s best friend—Hoyt E. Hayes.
Hoyt and Dorothy were wed, living in France and England for several years, before moving to Cleveland to raise their three daughters. They shared an interest in people and an interesting history. Hoyt’s mother’s family had owned a home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts before reportedly selling it to the Kennedy family. Dorothy’s father had entertained Annie Oakley at his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Both Dorothy and Hoyt had an opportunity to meet President Hoover.
The lessons and sense of adventure instilled in Jody through her parents have been passed down to her children, her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. Her family approaches life with a sense of fun and curiosity—raising inventors, photographers, parasailers, musicians, artists, authors and shop owners. The legacies of Hoyt and Dorothy will now live on beyond familial boundaries for generations to come in the Hoyt E. Hayes and Dorothy Barber Hayes Urmy Scholarship Endowment.
“In college, you meet people who can influence your life, and it makes a difference,” reflects Jody. “Knowing people is wonderful! It doesn’t matter where you are. It matters who the people around you are. Life is beautiful, and an amazing adventure.”