Joan Dearmin Finney

Joan Dearmin Finney died peacefully in her home in Indianapolis on November 6, 2017. Services will be held Monday, November 13, 2017 at Flanner Buchanan-Broad Ripple: 1305 Broad Ripple Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46220. Calling will begin at 11am, with services at 1pm. She will be interred at Crown Hill Cemetery.

Jan, as friends knew her, was gracious and wise, with exceptional drive and intellect. She was a lifelong resident of Indianapolis, and contributed greatly to her community. She graduated from IPS School #70, Shortridge High School where she edited the Shortridge Daily Echo, and Northwestern University, where she earned degrees from the Medill School of Journalism and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. She was president of Delta Gamma Fraternity and edited Northwestern’s yearbook, the Syllabus in 1947. She wrote broadly for the Indiana State Museum, the Indianapolis Historical Society, and Historic Landmarks Foundation (now Landmarks Indiana), and authored books on George Rogers Clark and Gene Stratton Porter.

She was a fundraising consultant to non-profit organizations in central Indiana, and a founding member of the Indiana Council of Fund Raising Executives (ICFRE), now known as  the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). She was the first Certified Fund Raising Executive in Indiana, and the first female CFRE in the country. Jan was a key figure in the formation of a group known as I.M.P.A.C.T.––Inter Museum Promotional Action Team––which included the State Museum, Conner Prairie, Historic Landmarks Foundation, Morris Butler House, Indianapolis Zoo, Children’s Museum, Speedway Museum and several others, which was formed in 1979 at the behest of the Lilly Endowment.

She helped the Indiana State Museum establish its ‘new’ location in the former Indianapolis City Hall in 1967, and served as its first Curator of Education from 1970 through 1975. After that she was Director of Development for Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana from 1976 until she became an independent fundraising consultant in 1985.

She was a member, officer and/or board member of the Indianapolis Civic Theatre, Junior Group of the State Symphony Society, Indianapolis Speech and Hearing Center, Indianapolis Day Nursery Auxiliary, the Indiana State Museum Society (of which she was a founder), the Day Nursery Association (now Early Learning Indiana), the Junior League of Indianapolis, the Service Corps of Retired Executives, The Players Club, the Contemporary Club, the Economics Club and Woodstock Club.

She was instrumental in organizing volunteer programs for the Speech and Hearing Center, the Civic Theatre, and the Indiana State Museum, where she established the docent program.

She was a supporter of the arts, including the Ensemble Music Society, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Jan was born in Indianapolis on February 1, 1926. She was the elder daughter of Robert Mason Dearmin and Doshia Wilhoit Dearmin, she was married to George Thomas Finney, Director of Guest Relations for Eli Lilly & Company, until his death in 1970. They had one child, Mark Dearmin Finney.

Jan and George reconnected after his POW experience in World War II, and were married in 1948, at which time they moved to West Lafayette, IN where he completed his bachelor’s degree in Business. While they were in Lafayette, they ran an alumni publications service. Upon their return to Indianapolis after George’s graduation, she became a freelance writer for local businesses, and was active in many civic organizations.

She was predeceased by her parents, her husband, her sister Nancy Dearmin Tyson, and her life partner Robert L. Craft.

Surviving family includes her son Mark Dearmin Finney, Sandi Finney (spouse), Kate Oberreich (granddaughter), nieces Anne Tyson (Harry Mairson), Amy Tyson & Tahl Tyson (Andrew Stanton), as well as numerous grand-nieces and -nephews.

In lieu of flowers, she would have you make a donation Landmarks Indiana (nee Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana) at https://www.indianalandmarks.org/join-give/donate/ or  1201 Central Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46202, 317-639-4534.

The Layers

Stanley Kunitz, 1905 – 2006

copyright 1978

I have walked through many lives,

some of them my own,

and I am not who I was,

though some principle of being

abides, from which I struggle

not to stray.

When I look behind,

as I am compelled to look

before I can gather strength

to proceed on my journey,

I see the milestones dwindling

toward the horizon

and the slow fires trailing

from the abandoned camp-sites,

over which scavenger angels

wheel on heavy wings.

Oh, I have made myself a tribe

out of my true affections,

and my tribe is scattered!

How shall the heart be reconciled

to its feast of losses?

In a rising wind

the manic dust of my friends,

those who fell along the way,

bitterly stings my face.

Yet I turn, I turn,

exulting somewhat,

with my will intact to go

wherever I need to go,

and every stone on the road

precious to me.

In my darkest night,

when the moon was covered

and I roamed through wreckage,

a nimbus-clouded voice

directed me:

“Live in the layers,

not on the litter.”

Though I lack the art

to decipher it,

no doubt the next chapter

in my book of transformations

is already written.

I am not done with my changes.