Joe Farley was born and raised in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. His high school graduating class from Hazleton Saint Gabriel's in 1970 was the last in the history of the school. At Saint Gabriel's Mr. Farley demonstrated his academic prowess by graduating 37th in his class of forty. He was the point guard on the school's 1970 state championship basketball team. Those exploits are covered in the book Trumpet Call to Victory: The Final Years of Hazleton Saint Gabriel's Basketball. Mr. Farley then attended Bloomsburg University where after four dimly remembered years he graduated with a degree in education. In 1975 Mr. Farley began a 35-year public service career working for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Upon his retirement in 2010, he began work on the Keystone Tombstone series with his coauthor Joe Farrell. To date, there are thirteen volumes in that series. Farley and Farrell have also authored Gotham Graves Volumes One and Two. Mr. Farley also penned Song Poems in Search of Music in 2014 He and his wife Sharon reside in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania. They have three children.
