Gerald (“Jerry”) Fincke passed away on November 6, 2024, at St. Anthony Community Hospital, Warwick, NY, with his wife, son, and sister-in-law by his side. He was 87 years old.
Born in Johnstown, NY, Jerry was a graduate of Union College, Harvard Business School, and Michigan Law School, and was admitted to both the New York State Bar and Florida Bar. Jerry began his long, multi-faceted career after graduating from Harvard in 1961 and securing a position at Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Mich., as a senior marketing analyst. While there, he attended Michigan Law School and, after earning his JD in 1966, moved to Rochester, NY, where he began to practice law, specializing in general corporate and securities work. Ultimately, Jerry was made senior partner at the firm of Goldstein, Goldman, Kessler & Underberg, where he remained until 1981.
Jerry then established a private practice with his first client, the Rochester-based Ontario Management Corp., and moved to Ormond Beach, Fl., to (successfully) assist his partners in salvaging the then-failing timeshare resort, Ocean East. He served as Ocean East’s legal counsel for over two decades, and that was also where he met his wife of nearly 30 years, Cecelia Hunter (originally from Orange County, NY). In the ‘90s, Jerry also worked with Rochester-based Diland Corp., which developed much of Country Village in Orange City, Fl., a large, manufactured home, RV park, and golf community.
While living in the greater Daytona Beach area, Jerry ran several successful political campaigns and led fundraising campaigns (notably United Way in 2003 and the Bethune-Cookman/UNCF campaign in 2007), giving his all to nearly everything he touched. His business career culminated in what became his proudest achievement when he partnered with his friend, the late George Anderson, in developing Daytona Beach’s Ocean Walk Towers & Shoppes. Later, he developed the Daytona Beach Pier, briefly taught political science as an adjunct professor at Bethune-Cookman University, and spent time at a second home in Warwick, NY.
After semi-retiring, Jerry and Cecelia moved to Warwick full-time and built a small service and retail business in Monroe, NY. Jerry fully retired in 2022 due to mounting health issues.
Jerry was a news watcher, an avid reader in many subjects, and very active throughout his life. He loved to ski, traveling with his wife (and many times with the Daytona Beach Ski Club) to various regions in the United States and abroad. He and Cecelia even skied with other club members across the Alps from Italy to France and back again. Jerry loved to participate in a variety of activities – he was an excellent wrestler in his younger days, a very good skier, and a decent golfer. In addition, he engaged in numerous heavy-duty home and land improvement projects. He loved his homes and always took great care in how they were decorated, filling them with animal heads from a closed Adirondack bar, garden-gauge model trains, political memorabilia, and beautiful things curated while on foreign trips with Cecelia. He loved the Adirondacks, spending summers at Caroga Lake, NY, as a young man, and having second homes in the region as an adult.
Jerry never shied away from the humorous and audacious, a fact he was well-known for in his family, careers, politics, and charity work. In his retirement years in Orange County, NY, Jerry’s still-active imagination led him to create Monroe’s annual “Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.” He even had Monroe police “arrest” him in Aroma Cigar Lounge on his 85th birthday, during a skit that he devised ending with him having a pie pushed in his face.
Jerry loved politics. A Republican-turned-Democrat, he managed two gubernatorial campaigns in the ‘60s and, later, Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Rochester, NY, primary campaign, even hosting the future president overnight at his Rochester home. He published a book about his experiences called “Primer for Political Wannabees: Confessions of a Political Gunslinger,” summed up as “50 years of winning campaigns without ever holding office!” The irony of his passing on the same day the 2024 election results were announced is not lost on his family.
Jerry will be sorely missed by those who knew and loved him. He is survived by his wife, Cecelia; children from his first marriage Holly, Denny (April), and Dionne; grandchildren Nicole and Ximadra; great-grandchildren Jahzarri, Jahzai and Halo; brother Alan; and multiple nieces and nephews. Jerry was predeceased by his first wife, Carolyn (nee Hyatt), mother of his children, and brothers Larry and Andy.
Pursuant to Jerry’s wishes, a private service will be held. In lieu of flowers, scholarship donations in his memory can be made to Bethune-Cookman University: cookman.scalefunder.com/cfund/Fincke.
Arrangements were made by Lazear-Smith & Vander Plaat Memorial Home, 17 Oakland Avenue, Warwick, NY. To send an online condolence, visit lsvpmemorialhome.com.