Rufus Crane Finch Jr. ’51

Rufus was born May 7, 1925, to Rufus C. and Adelaide Gardner Finch of Rumson, N.J.

He was a World War II veteran, having served with the combat engineers in Europe, where he fought in the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Paris.

Rufus came to us from the Lawrenceville School. At Princeton he majored in history and belonged to the Republican Club and Ivy. He roomed with Francis Gowen, Pete Stroh, and Joe Werner.

Rufus worked in the magazine field in sales and marketing for McCall’s, The Saturday Evening Post and Better Homes and Gardens.

In 1959 he married Nancie Hall Damon, and they had two children, Rufus III and Tamara. They divorced in 1971, the same year that he started a book-publishing firm specializing in metaphysics and oriental philosophy.

Ten years later he and Louisa Cox Maderia were married. He retired in 1988, and they moved to North Palm Beach, Fla., where they were well known on the duplicate bridge circuit. Both were life masters. By 2006 he had two grandchildren, Christopher and Nathan Johnson.

The Palm Beach Post reported that Rufus died May 22, 2017. He was 92. Further details were not available.