Family Service of Rhode Island has announced that the Honorable Malcolm Farmer, III, has been elected president emeritus of the non-profit’s board of directors. Mr. Farmer has served as president of the board since 2002.

He’s a partner at Hinckley Allen, and served as staff attorney in the mid-1960s for the Lawyers’ Constitutional Defense Committee in Jackson, Mississippi, where he represented civil rights workers and organizations as well as local African-American citizens. Returning to Rhode Island in 1967, he served as executive director of the Governor’s Commission on Crime Delinquency and Criminal Administration. He was a member of the Providence City Council from 1979-1991, and was inducted into that city’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Hall of Fame in 2007. In 2015 he received Family Service of Rhode Island’s Brighter Futures Award.

He has an LL.B. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Yale.

“We are honored that Mac has agreed to continue his longtime association with Family Service of Rhode Island by becoming our president emeritus,” said Margaret Holland McDuff. “His accomplishments as our board president and in serving Providence and the nation are legendary. He’s a true Rhode Island treasure and inspiration.”

Family Service of Rhode Island is a statewide non-profit social service and educational organization. More information is available at www.familyserviceri.org.