Mrs Farry was awarded the QSM in the 2023 honours list, for services to the community, and officially received it from Dame Cindy Kiro at an investiture ceremony in Wellington yesterday.
The Dunedin recipient previously said it was humbling to receive the honour.
"You don’t do these things for your own personal accolades."
But it quickly evolved to wider and wider sections of the community.
She served as chairwoman of the Andersons Bay Kindergarten in 1978 and became inaugural chairwoman of the board of trustees of St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary School in 1989.
Following the amalgamation of Moreau and St Paul’s College, she became a member of the organising committee of the newly formed Kavanagh College (now Trinity Catholic College) where she was responsible for the design of the school uniform.
She was heavily involved in sport and acted as a co-ordinator, coach, administrator, and served as selector of Otago age-group and under-19 netball teams.
She was named a national woman of prominence by the organisation in 2016.
Mrs Farry also played a vital part in co-ordinating funding for the Sophie Elliott Foundation’s Loves-Me-Not programme in schools, which teaches pupils how to recognise and avoid abusive relationships.
She has also been an advisory board member of the Dunedin School of Art Foundation since 2011.
