Sgt. Andrew Farrar

A `true hero' from Weymouth dies in night raid

A Weymouth Marine who urged school kids to look up to the working people in their lives as heroes was killed Friday when he was electrocuted by a live wire during a night raid in Iraq.

It was Sgt. Andrew K. Farrar Jr.'s 31st birthday, marked at his boyhood home by the arrival of a somber detail of Marines in dress uniform bearing news of his death.

"We believe he's a true hero," said his father, Andrew K. Farrar Sr. "He gave his life for what he thought was the most profound thing he could do for his country."

"He was a strong, handsome, kind young man," said his mother, Claire Farrar. "He was a wonderful son . . . he was a true Marine."

His younger brother Nathan, a teacher at the Abigail Adams Middle School in Weymouth, said school kids corresponded with his brother, who wrote back a long letter telling the kids: "They are lucky to live in the United States. They shouldn't look up to movie stars and people like that. The real heroes are their parents, their teachers, police and firefighters, all the people who work for a living."

Nathan Farrar said, "I worshiped the ground he walked on when we were kids. He was quiet. If you looked in his eyes, there was a passion for life that couldn't be matched."

The 1992 Weymouth High School graduate loved basketball, a pint of Guinness and the Dropkick Murphys. But more than anything, he loved his family - his wife, Melissa, and sons Tyler and Liam - the Marine Corps and his squad of young Marines. He led them through the bitter fighting in Fallujah last fall.

"He wrote letters home saying it was the kind of thing you didn't talk about. It was something he wanted to leave there," his brother Jason said. "He said he did this kind of thing so people here could wake up in the morning and have their pancakes."

Caption: `A PASSION FOR LIFE': Marine Sgt. Andrew K. Farrar Jr. of Weymouth, above in 1999 with his wife, Melissa, died Friday on duty in Iraq. It was his 31st birthday.