Following a distinguished career in journalism and over 10 years at Georgetown, former School of Foreign Service Professor John Finney passed away at age 80 last week. A resident of the Palisades neighborhood, Finney died of prostate cancer at the Washington Home Hospice on Oct. 29.
Finney worked as a professor in the SFS graduate program from 1988-2000 after retiring from a career of over 25 years at the Washington Bureau of The New York Times.
While at Georgetown, Finney taught classes on media, communications and politics. He incorporated technology and current events into his classes, which included Media Workshop and a popular one-credit class called Dealing with the Media.
He also tutored many of his students, including many international students, in speaking, writing and presentation skills as they prepared for interviews and oral examinations, building friendships with his students as he coached them.
“Personally, [Finney] was like a big teddy bear, with a crusty professional exterior that never quite managed to hide the heart of gold buried inside,” SFS Associate Dean Andrew Steigman said. “As a teacher, John let that heart of gold show through. He cared deeply about every one of his students, and was always generous with his time and his knowledge.”
Before coming to Georgetown, Finney earned acclaim for his work as a journalist who reported on issues of military policy, nuclear proliferation, diplomacy and U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
First hired by the New York Times as a nuclear and scientific reporter in 1957, Finney served as news editor at the Washington Bureau of the New York Times from 1978-1985 and wrote over 2,500 articles over the course of his career.
His investigative reporting on the Senate hearings surrounding the disputed Gulf of Tonkin incident exposed inconsistencies in the Johnson administration’s Vietnam policies and highlighted dissent within higher levels of the government over the war.
“John Finney was a classic example of the old-fashioned journalist, a man of total integrity whose goal was accurate and honest reporting,” Steigman added.
Finney’s journalism career began during his undergraduate days at Yale, where he served as an editor for the Yale Daily News. He was scheduled to graduate in 1945, but postponed this date to serve in the Navy as a radio operator for two years. After his service, Finney returned to Yale and briefly attended Yale Law School before leaving to travel abroad.
Finney is survived by his wife Teresa, two daughters and three grandchildren.
