John Huston Finley was Professor of Polities at Princeton University from 1900 to 1903, and President of the City College of New York from 1903 until 1913, when he was appointed Commissioner of Education of the State of New New York
Background
He was born on October 19, 1863 in Grand Ridge, Illinois, the eldest son of James Gibson Finley and Lydia Margaret McCombs. His father and mother went out as early settlers on the prairies from the E. His father was the great-grandson of the Reverend James Finley, the first minister, it is believed, to settle permanently beyond the Allegheny Mountains in Western Pennsylvania, and brother of Doctor Samuel Finley, President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in the middle of the eighteenth century.
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Knox College, 1887, Master of Arts, 1890. Johns Hopkins, 1887-1889. Doctor of Laws, Park College, 1895, Knox College, 1899, University of Wisconsin, 1904, Princeton, 1905, Tulane, 1906, Williams, 1908, Dartmouth, 1909, Hobart, 1913, Columbia, 1914, Brown University, 1915, University of State of New York, 1921, University of Michigan, 1925, Miami University, 1927, Hamilton College, 1927, University of Toronto, 1927, McGill, 1932, Colby, 1932, Middlebury, 1933, Marietta College, 1935, University of California, 1936, Johns Hopkins, 1938.
Doctor of Humane Letters, Colgate, 1914, New York University, 1915, University of Vermont, 1925, Yeshiva, 1933, Trinity, 1933, Saint Lawrence University, 1935.
Juris Utriusque Doctor, University of Pennsylvania, 1927. Doctor of Letters, Lafayette, 1930, University of Rochester, 1931, Butler, 1932.
Career
A promenade along the western bank of the East River between 63rd Street and 125th Street in Manhattan was named the John Finley Walk in 1940 because he had often walked the perimeter of Manhattan. He was Secretary of the Illinois State Charities Aid Association, 1889–1892, and President of Knox College, 1892-1899. In the latter year, he went to New York, but after a year in the editorial departments of the publishing houses of Harpers and McClure"s, returned to educational work, upon an invitation to take a newly established chair at Princeton University.
He was Professor of Polities at Princeton from 1900–1903, and President of the College of the City of New York from 1903 until 1913, when he was appointed President of the University of the State of New York and Commissioner of Education of the State of New New York
He was also Harvard University exchange lecturer on the Hyde Foundation at the Sorbonne in Paris from 1910 to 1911. During World War I he headed the Red Cross Commission in Palestine.
Finley was appointed The New York Times associate editor in 1921. On April 21, 1937, The Times announced Doctor Finley"s appointment as editor-in-chief
He held that position until November
16, 1938, when because of poor health he took the title of editor emeritus. Finley was president of the American Geographical Society from 1925 to 1934. He remained an honorary president there until his death.
His position on the Times placed him in contact with the great explorers and fliers of the day, who signed their names for him on a terrestrial globe, which he presented to the Society in 1929.
He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science & the Public, from 1925-1940. John H. Finley died while sleeping of a coronary embolism the morning of March 7, 1940 in New York City.
During his long and distinguished career he received honorary degrees from over thirty colleges and universities, and twelve governments bestowed thirteen decorations on him.
Achievements
Membership
Member of the board of arbitration in eastern railway controversy, 1913-1914. Member New York State Constitutional Convention Commission, 1914-1915. Member American Army Education Committee in France, 1918.
Member National Institute Arts and Letters (executive president).
Member American Academy Arts and Letters, 1927. Member National Council of Boy Scouts.
Member of New York History Society, Society of Cincinnati of State of New New New York Clubs: Century, Players (New New York
Connections
Married Martha Ford Boyden, June 29, 1892. Children: Ellen Boyden, Margaret Boyden (deceased), Robert Lawrence, John Huston.
Decorated Order Rising Sun (Japanese). Officer Legion of Honor (French). Commander Order of Crown of Italy.tempSpaceKnight of the Holy Sepulchre.
Commander Order of Saint Sava (Serbian). Commander Polonia Restituta (Polish).tempSpaceCommander Order of White Rose (Finnish), Order of Saint Olaf (Norwegian). Knight of Dannebrog (Danish).
Knight of Gediminas (Lithuanian).tempSpaceCommander Order of the Savior (Greek). Commander Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia). Commander Order of the Royal North Star (Sweden).tempSpaceBook on French in America crowned by Academie Francaise and awarded gold medal Geographic Society, Paris.
Decorated Order Rising Sun (Japanese). Officer Legion of Honor (French). Commander Order of Crown of Italy.tempSpaceKnight of the Holy Sepulchre.
Commander Order of Saint Sava (Serbian). Commander Polonia Restituta (Polish).tempSpaceCommander Order of White Rose (Finnish), Order of Saint Olaf (Norwegian). Knight of Dannebrog (Danish).
Knight of Gediminas (Lithuanian).tempSpaceCommander Order of the Savior (Greek). Commander Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia). Commander Order of the Royal North Star (Sweden).tempSpaceBook on French in America crowned by Academie Francaise and awarded gold medal Geographic Society, Paris.