Jean Finfer, 89

   Jean Finfer, a former library trustee who lived in Rockville Centre from 1950 to 1976, died on Nov. 19 at The Cambridge Homes, a retirement residence in Cambridge, Mass.

   Finfer served two terms as an elected trustee of the Rockville Centre Public Library, from 1967-1975. Looking back on the election, she would tell her family, “I had to run a town-wide race and I defeated three male candidates in a period when few women ran for office.”As trustee she worked to initiate the library’s annual lecture by famous writers. Among those who spoke were historian Doris Kearns Goodwin who would later write a memoir about growing up in Rockville Centre in the 1950’s, “Wait Till Next Year.” Another speaker was Amherst College professor Benjamin DeMott, descended from the 1700s family for whom DeMott Avenue was named. For years the Finfers lived in the DeMott family home on Hempstead Avenue.

     Jean Finfer had a great love for literature. She kept extensive notes on the works and criticism of great authors and poets. She taught literature in adult education classes at the library. Once when a professor became ill, she became a substitute and was very proud to teach a literature course at Molloy College. She was active in the Nassau County chapter of the American Association of University Women, serving as chapter president.

      Jean was able to apply the lessons of great literature to practical life. While shopping with her then 10-year-old son Lewis at Adelson’s Clothing Store on Park Avenue, she counseled him to “hurry up and decide which shirt you want, because indecision ruined Hamlet.” When Lewis eventually read Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” in Mr. Jenkin’s English class at South Side High School, he did search in vain for the scene of Hamlet trying to decide which shirt to buy.

     Jean almost participated in an event that would have added to Rockville Centre’s history. In October 1960, John F. Kennedy campaigned for president in a motorcade across Long Island, driving through Rockville Centre on Sunrise Highway. Advance people wanted to schedule a brief rest stop along the route and Town Democratic leader Mo Schneider arranged for Kennedy to stop at the Finfer house. Regrettably, plans for the stop were canceled. Later on, Jean could not remember what snack she had planned to serve the president-to-be, but since she was a great cook, he would have been well served.

     On the founding staff of Seventeen Magazine during World War II, Jean married Mickey Finfer in 1946 and they moved from Brooklyn to Rockville Centre in 1950, living on Surrey Lane and later on Hempstead Avenue. Mickey operated the Barasch-Finfer Real Estate Office at 59 N. Park Avenue for many decades. While married, Jean worked for periods doing promotion work for Roosevelt Raceway and on a project with former Roosevelt Raceway executive Nick Grande that attempted to establish a quarter horse racetrack on Long Island.

     In addition to her lifelong love of literature, Jean was an avid gardener, an accomplished cook, loved sailing on trans Atlantic cruise ships, and was a devoted Brooklyn Dodgers fan. She could be charming, learned, stubborn, and opinionated — and sometimes all of those at one time. 

    Her two sons, Larry Finfer, who died in 2009, and Lewis Finfer of Boston, graduated from South Side High School. She had two grandchildren, Sophia and Aleksandr and daughters-in-law Judy Shea and Judy Jashinsky. She divorced and then married Paul Miller in 1976, became known as Jean Miller, and moved to Bethlehem, Pa. While there, she contributed articles on cooking and travel to the Bethlehem Globe Times, a daily newspaper.

    A memorial service was held on Nov. 27 at The Cambridge Homes and her funeral will be held on Dec. 3 in Bethlehem.