Albert Joseph Finch

Albert Joseph Finch was born on July 7, 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the son of immigrants – Edward Finch and Mollie Marcus - and as a first generation American Jew lived the American Dream. He was married to Marlene Stone Finch for almost 50 years and together they were survived by three children – Leah Finch (Murph Kinney), Carrie Finch-Goldstein (Seth Goldstein) and David Finch and 6 grandchildren Christopher, Molly, Naomi, Sophia, Elijah, Zachary and Reed. Mr. Finch was predeceased by his grandson Sean and his granddaughter Madison. He is to be buried in the David Vicur Cholim family cemetery at the Baker Street Jewish Cemeteries, in West Roxbury on May 3, 2022 which is the 7th anniversary of Sean’s death and should have been Sean’s 27th birthday. They were especially close and it brings our family comfort to imagine them together in a warm embrace.

Mr. Finch was a renowned businessman and provider and had the extraordinary ability to singularly focus to accomplish his goals and indulge in his narrow interests of finance and Israel. Mr. Finch was known as a “difficult” child who had trouble getting through high school and college due to undiagnosed learning differences. He learned to enjoy reading in middle age. And despite having dyslexia and learning challenges his pure genius allowed him to quickly climb the ranks of the U.S. Postal Service where he worked for President Johnson creating housing budgets that were so brilliant President Johnson recommended him to attend MIT. Mr. Finch obtained a Master Degree in Econometrics despite MIT’s admission quota against Jewish students. He loved to recount how he was able to attend Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech while walking from the White House one day. Mr. Finch founded and chaired two publicly traded financial institutions- Suncoast Savings and Loan Association, FSB and OptimumBank. He developed land and homes in South Florida, North Carolina and California.

Mr. Finch never took “no” for an answer and had his own ideas about what was humanly possible and with that spirit he cared for his wife, Marlene. Marlene had a ruptured brain aneurism at the age of 42 and although she was expected to die or have no quality of life, Mr. Finch insured that this did not happen. He obtained the best of care for his love and despite her brain injury and partial paralysis he took her by the arm and lead her traveling around the world with their best friends Sumner and Dina Kaye. Thanks to him we have pictures of our mother in a balloon over the Serengeti Desert. He cared for her like no other and made sure she had the best of everything. It was a curious match that worked despite the fact that Marlene grew up in a coal mining camp in West Virginia without running water. It was as if Loretta Lynn had married Alan Greenspan. She joked that she married him because she knew she would always have indoor plumbing. And indeed she did as they owned spectacular homes from Miami Beach to Cape Cod to San Francisco.

Mr. Finch was an avid Zionist and philanthropist and travelled to Israel too many times to count and donated generously to many Jewish causes. It is in that vein that we request any donations in his honor be sent to Abundance Farm (253 Prospect St. Northampton, MA 01060), a Jewish food justice farm where most of his grandchildren have worked and where people of all faiths come together for justice work and regenerative agriculture. Mr. Finch was a loving and devoted grandfather who took pride in his family. His loss is deeply felt.