George Finkelstein ’65

George died Sept. 2, 2018, in São Paolo, Brazil, and was buried in the Israeli Cemetery of Butanta there.

He, along with classmate Mark Granovetter, came to us from Henry Snyder High School in Jersey City, N.J. At Princeton George majored in the Woodrow Wilson School, graduating magna cum laude. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1968; was a lawyer in the Army in South Korea, Vietnam, and the Pentagon until 1973; and then became a lawyer at AT&T, rising to the rank of general attorney in New York City. He retired in 1995.

He lived in Greenwich Village and in 1991 married the Brazilian writer and artist Ésio Macedo Ribeiro, after which they lived in Chicago and São Paolo, and on a farm in the high savannah near Brasilia. They consecrated their marriage ceremonially in 2012 when it became legal to do so in New York. Most of George’s life was involved with his work, travel, ballet, art, and music-collecting. He and Ésio owned one of Brazil’s largest collections of books and Brazilian music.

George is survived by Ésio; his brother Robert and his wife, Terry; and other close relatives. We send our condolences to them on the loss of this gentle, thoughtful, and caring man.