Looking for J. Taylor Finley
The folks who operate the Huntington School District's website don't like to leave any loose ends hanging. They are also school history aficionados. So, when they couldn't close the proverbial "book" on legendary teacher and administrator J. Taylor Finley, it bothered them.
Huntington High School senior Michael Lambui is another history buff. He's pitched in several times to help locate the mortal remains of some of the district's long departed major figures. The teenager helps track down the gravesites and headstones of former superintendents, principals, teachers and the like.
For many months the website operators and Mr. Lambui were stymied whenever they tried to obtain photos of Mr. Finley's final resting place. They knew that the former superintendent passed away on October 4, 1975 and was predeceased by his wife, Edith who entered eternity in April 1974. They also had a copy of an obituary that stated Mr. Finley was buried in the family plot at Pompton Plains Reform Church Cemetery in New Jersey.
But, try as they did, neither Mr. Lambui nor the website operators could get a photo of Mr. Finley's grave. Mr. Lambui put out a request on Find A Grave, a free resource that claims it contains information on 400,000 cemeteries in 200 different countries.
The Search Continues
Not long after Mr. Lambui's request for Mr. Finley's grave information was posted, than a volunteer responded, stating, "I searched the entire cemetery and could not find the grave." Nine months of frustration followed as the Huntington School District's amateur historical "detectives" continued their search for Mr. Finley.
One day one of the searchers located Mr. Finley's son, James, a retired Huntington High School teacher who still resides in the district. James Finley stated he delivered the cremains of his parents to the Pompton Plains Reform Church Cemetery himself and was certain they were in the ground there someplace.
A message was sent to Paul Hollick, the cemetery's chairperson, inquiring about Mr. Finley and asking for information regarding his burial plot. Mr. Hollick responded in short order that John S. Finley purchased eight cemetery plots. A list of who is buried in each of the plots was provided. The cremains of Mr. and Mrs. J. Taylor Finley can indeed be found there.
Armed with that information, the website operators once again contacted Mr. Lambui with the Finley's cemetery lot number (No. 315). The teenager again posted a request on Find A Grave for photos of the burial plot. This time a volunteer found the family plot and responded with a photo.
A Majestic School
A school named in Mr. Finley's honor sits majestically on Greenlawn Road in Huntington. Its ageless look often catches the eye of those driving by the building. Named after one of the Huntington School District's giants, the school has been a source of pride in the community despite an increasing lack of knowledge of who Mr. Finley was and why the building was named after him.
Today's Huntington was a very different place when J. Taylor Finley arrived from upstate New York in 1929 to teach math and physics at the old high school on Main Street, now the site of town hall. A study of his career is a fascinating trip down memory lane.
Born in Brooklyn on April 26, 1905, Mr. Finley attended elementary school in Mountain View, New Jersey and graduated Montclair High School in 1922. He earned his B.S. degree from Lafayette College in 1926, completing 155 credits and went on to obtain a Master of Arts from Columbia University's Teacher's College in 1932. He also studied sociology at New York University and earned twelve credits in administration in 1939 from Teacher's College, where he later studied administration again in 1944.
Began Career as Math and Science Teacher
The 5'9, 200 lb. educator began his career as an algebra and general science teacher at D.A. Harman Junior High School in Hazelton, Pennsylvania in 1926. A year later he moved to Saranac Lake High School in upstate New York where he taught chemistry, physics and general science courses from 1927-29.
After teaching at Huntington High School for just one year, Mr. Finley was named principal of Woodbury Avenue Elementary School (which is now a condominium complex) for the 1930 school year. In 1939, he became principal of Lincoln Elementary School (now an apartment complex) on East 9th Street in Huntington Station. He worked as principal of both schools until October 15, 1943 when he was named principal of Robert K. Toaz Junior High School.
A patient man, Mr. Finley sought the principal's position at Toaz Junior High when the school first opened. "My experience with children of junior high school age has led me to believe that I am capable of gaining and keeping their respect," he wrote on August 10, 1938 in seeking the position. "I feel sure that I can do this job for the best interests of all concerned."
Mr. Howard V. Littell, Saranac Lake's Superintendent of Schools remembered Mr. Finley well from his service in that district more than a decade earlier. "Finley is a good man," Mr. Littell stated in recommending Mr. Finley for the Toaz principal's job.
He didn't land that position, but remained very loyal to the Huntington School District and continued as an elementary school principal and later ascended to the Toaz job that he earlier had coveted.
Elevated to Asst. Superintendent
Mr. Finley stayed on as principal of Toaz through the 1954 school year. At that time he was elevated to assistant superintendent of schools and was named superintendent of schools in 1957, a position he held until his retirement on June 30, 1963.
Married in 1927 to Edith Henrietta Watt of Tamaqua, PA, Mr. Finley and his wife had three children, James, John T. III and Jane. All three were educated in the Huntington School District. During his years in Huntington, Mr. Finley, who was known as Taylor (his actual given first name was John), and his family resided at homes on Chestnut Street, Oakwood Road and Bayberry Drive.
When approached by Huntington Superintendent of Schools Carl V. Warren in May 1954 about the possibility of moving into the central administration, Mr. Finley wrote the chief school officer a detailed three page memorandum dated May 18 concerning his ideas about curriculum and instruction.
"Because I feel, though you may not concur, that, in the main, our curriculum, as it has been functioning, is good, I tend to think in terms of instruction first and curriculum second," Mr. Finley wrote.
"This view may be prompted by the fact that we are opening three new schools with new principals and many new teachers. Nor do I mean to imply that investigation in the area of the curriculum is unimportant. I think it is most important and that there is work to be done at all levels. However, considering the time factor, I believe, that a consideration of instruction is the immediate need—merely putting first things first."
Mr. Finley added: "I, as assistant in charge of instruction, am concerned with improving the setting for learning in particular." He did just that and Huntington became well known as one of the top districts in the state, if not the nation.
Presided Over Opening of New HHS
As superintendent, Mr. Finley presided over the opening of a new Huntington High School during the 1958 school year and the opening of a renovated R.L. Simpson Junior High School in 1961 and Jefferson Elementary School in 1962.
Mr. Finley was active in the community, too, serving as a founding director of the Walt Whitman Federal Savings Bank, including a term as its president in 1961-'63, an original member of the Huntington YMCA Board of Directors, vice-president of the Huntington Chamber of Commerce, president of the Rotary Club and helping start the United Fund of Huntington.
After his retirement from the district in June 1963, Mr. Finley and his wife moved to Ancram, New York for seven years and then moved again to Toms River, New Jersey.
On December 8, 1964, the Huntington Board of Education unanimously voted to name the district's new junior high school on Greenlawn Road after Mr. Finley in recognition of his 34 years of service to the schools and community.
"The Board of Education and all of your friends here in Huntington send their best regards," Superintendent Charles T. St. Clair wrote in a December 9 letter to Mr. Finley informing him of the school board's action.
Mrs. Finley passed away in April 1974 and Mr. Finley died October 3, 1975. He is buried in the family plot at Pompton Plains Reform Church Cemetery in New Jersey.
A memorial service was held for him on November 8, 1975 at 2 p.m. in the Old First Presbyterian Church on Main Street across the street from the old Huntington High School, where Mr. Finley's Huntington career began.