Harold L. Finch lived an unequaled life filled with lasting achievements. But what made him great was what he was like in private.
Sincere. Humble. Childlike Heart.
Faith:
“Nobody who met Dad for the first time would have ever suspected anything about his lifetime of amazing accomplishments. He was just an ordinary guy who loved God and never sought recognition. He was happy in his own skin and never conveyed arrogance. In fact, he was more likely to be asking other people questions about their own lives.” – Mark Finch
Harold Finch is remembered as a man of faith who set aside daily time to study the Bible. He always kept a packet of little memory flash cards close by and tried to live a life true to Scriptural teachings. His life verse was Proverbs 3:5-6, which says,
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight.”
Along with studying the Bible, Finch was remembered for sincere prayer and fasting. When 400,000 smart NASA engineers struggled with how to keep the Apollo astronauts and their spacecraft safe in the extreme temperatures of open space, Harold Finch went into seclusion to pray and brainstorm. Soon thereafter, he went to a Kansas City barbecue restaurant for lunch. It was there that he noticed a chicken slowly spinning on a rotisserie to keep the temperatures of all of sides even. Instant epiphany! Could the same idea work for a spaceship? His unlikely proposal to NASA (calling for a computerized rotisserie-like roll of the Apollo) beat out all other creative proposals by Grumman, Martin-Marietta, Boeing, and all the aerospace behemoths everybody’s heard of. Finch was named NASA’s Project Director for what was arguably the Apollo’s most critical system.
Unbelievably, Finch soon thereafter left his successful science career at its peak. He let everyone know that he was following the mysterious guidance of the Lord, and many let him know they thought it was a bad decision. He was drawn to an entirely new career in education for which he had no background or credentials. Yet he became the regional pioneer in the creation of a revolutionary new concept, that of the comprehensive community college. He helped re-create what it meant to be a junior college in the Midwest when he designed the area’s first comprehensive vo-tech certification programs at not one, but two different post-secondary institutions (Metropolitan Community College and Johnson County Community College). He rose to become Acting President of the latter.
Then, at the peak of his educational career, Finch was prompted to change directions again to go into another entirely unknown field for which he had no training – business. In turn, he co-founded companies that rose to the top of their respective industries – and Finch achieved national recognition and financial independence.
From the proceeds of that bounty, he and wife Peggy co-founded a missionary-sending organization called Wellspring Mission Volunteers Foundation to assist ordinary church people from across the nation to go overseas and personally partner with missionaries. Finch saw this ministry as helping to start little spiritual brush fires in the hearts of the thousands of people, mostly non-clergy, the foundation sponsored.
Then, even while that was going on, Finch became board president for a Christian school that was floundering and brought financial, administrative, and goal-setting order out of chaos. Other great leaders have since taken the baton and today that school (Summit Christian Academy) has a student population nearing 1,400 and is ranked the #1 private school in all of Kansas City!
Since it is always easier to work a maze backwards, Finch at last realized why he’d been urged to change careers so often. His entire adult life, he had trusted the Lord with all of his heart and leaned not on his own understanding. It was only in his last decades that things began to make sense. The Lord now tied all of Finch’s career threads together and opened doors for him to travel the world to speak to people from all backgrounds about how to achieve great success in life. In doing so, he could uniquely and personally relate to most. He’d had an abusive father but he overcame. He’d been poor but he'd also achieved financial independence. He’d been a student and he’d been a college president. He’d been a dreamer with big ideas and he had seen his dreams come true. He had a solid connection with engineers, scientists, space enthusiasts, college teachers and administration, and businesspeople.
As he traveled, Finch conveyed a faith-based message for how ordinary people could find tremendous success in life by chasing their dreams, rejecting corruption, and practicing integrity. Finch always emphasized the importance of practicing the Golden Rule. Another popular topic he addressed was, “Why a Scientist Believes in God.” In all, Finch led nearly 750 pro bono seminars on five continents to packed out auditoriums and soccer stadiums.
The last chapter of Finch’s life guided him into another direction for which he once again had no experience: becoming a motion picture producer. He was once again told he was out of his mind. No small independent, family-friendly motion picture had a chance against Hollywood. But Finch believed that God was the inspiration for the movie and plodded forward. His supervising producer Chad Gundersen (The Chosen) caught the vision. Unlimited premiered in theaters in 2013 competing against other new releases featuring Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Hanks. Nonetheless, Hollywood tracking numbers revealed that Unlimited had ranked third nationwide in terms of actual seats filled! Against all odds, the movie is still streamed today on most platforms.
In his final years, Finch’s health forced him to slow way down. Yet, he still wrote handwritten notes to people in need of encouragement or congratulations for special occasions, served on church building committees, helped raise funds for worthy causes, volunteered in area food pantries, and regularly gathered for prayer alongside Christian leaders of all races and backgrounds across the spectrum of Kansas City churches.
