James (Jim) Otis Finley

James Otis Finley was born September 5, 1935 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was the fourth of six sons of David Earle Finley and Gladys (Sutherland) Finley.

He graduated in 1955 from the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades as a brick mason and worked as a mason and masonry foreman for John F Bubel Inc. for the next 18 years and served in the Army for two years in Europe (1958-1960).

He married Mildred Mlinarsky Kutney in October 1972 and instantly became a step-father of five. They moved to Texas in 1977 where he worked for various construction firms and started Jim Finley Fireplace Specialist in September 1978 and retired in 2013.

Jim was a quiet, honest and hardworking man as he lived out his faith; he was a living epistle.

Jim was survived by his wife of 45 years Millie Finley.  She died on September 19, 2018.  She was a widow for 4 1/2 days.  He is also survived by his sons William B. Kutney, Sr. and his wife Heidi, Francis G. Kutney, Jr. and his wife Kathy Lester, Robert A. Kutney, Daniel E. Mlinarski, daughter Lynn M. Morales and her husband Keith, 7 grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren, brothers David William Finley, Robert Louis Finley, Larry Allan Finley. He was preceded in death by brothers Joseph Earle and Thomas Richard Finley.

A joint Visitation for both Millie and Jim will be held on Wednesday, September 26, 2018, from 6:00 – 8:00 P.M. at Allen Family Funeral Options. There will be a joint memorial service Thursday, September 27, 2018 at 10:30 A.M. at Christ Church Plano, 4550 Legacy Dr., Plano, Texas 75024 officiated by The Very Reverend Canon Paul Donison.

A reception will be held immediately following the memorial service.

In lieu of flowers, the family wishes donations, in Jim’s name, be made to the Christ Church Missions Fund , 4550 Legacy Drive, Plano, Texas 75024 or the Williamson College of the Trades , 106 S. New Middletown Road, Media, Pennsylvania 19063, Williamson.edu or phone 610-566-1776.

Jim Finley was my best friend since I was about 8…

Picture if you will a ship in a storm: rudderless, tossed, battered, and without anchor—adrift. That was my family, as my Mother and Father were divorced when I was five and back then the law allowed my father to only get to see us every other weekend. Boys growing up without a father in the home will ‘grow up to be boys’, in the worst sense of that saying. Daughters similarly will also feel such a vacuum inside that it will affect them in more far-reaching ways in later life. When Mom found Jim Finley she found a man of commitment and grace (the desire and power God gives to do His (God’s) will) and who loved us sacrificially, as my brother put it for many years, “Jim Finley is a living epistle”. For what kind of man would take someone else’s family, and love and raise them as his own?

It is funny among my friends who have done similar marriages as my dad, when they tell me how hard it is to deal within a marriage as a second husband, or deal with a rebellious teenager who neither loves nor respects their step-father, we have had a saying for some time now, “Oh, you mean you are being a ‘Jim Finley’” (reducing him to an idiom). To which they nod their head. You see, men who sacrificially love to that extra measure were probably told to do so by God, therefore they might see it as part of their God-given purpose in life. And all men should want to know what God wants them to do, so they can get it done. They are in it for the long-haul. Because the respect they have in the end was earned everyday, day after day over their lifetime. Did you notice God gives these guys long, productive lives? All of us know one: a ‘Jim Finley’ (if you will accept the idiom).

Just a few days ago, after my Dad’s passing, my cousin said “That man knew exactly what he was doing (when he married your mom); your grandpa said he was crazy.”

Dad joked with his friends when he got married and instantly had five kids; he said on one occasion that I came in a kit: disassembled and 10 years old. Of course, this was the era of ‘Instant Breakfast’ shakes, he used that one also, “I just added water and mixed.”

After marrying Mom in October 1972, he had projects for us boys. I could lay 8-inch block when I was 10, the twelve-inch blocks were just too heavy. Of course he taught us the basics of bricklaying-- “start at the bottom.” All of us kids have a good work ethic, for at some point we all worked for him. Have you ever moved four hundred bricks two inches because Dad can’t reach them? And he knew how to encourage you, when I was twelve, I wanted a motorcycle and we were building a house in Pennsylvania at the time. We became his labor force. He made a deal with me, I would be a laborer and earn half of the money for the motorcycle, guess who pitched in the other half, Jim Finley! My brother Bob and I figured we touched every brick on that house as we loaded the scaffolding. No, actually, between Bob and I, we touched half the bricks. Jim Finley touched every brick. Building that house was a labor of love. Dad was hard to keep up with on a job-site, that’s what I learned building that house.

Being a dad involves taking risks: he didn’t know what he was getting into when God told him to marry Mom-- and five kids that weren’t his. Mom told me she said to him, “Love me, love my children”, if you saw them over the years, Mom was Dad’s girl. Jim Finley was our dad. In his faithfulness, Dad was being a ‘Jim Finley.’

Being a dad involves risk: that first summer with my new dad, he would take me to work with him, at this time he was a commercial brick mason and foreman. I went to work with him all that summer, I remember his boss clearly stating to him, “I don’t like kids on the job”, obviously for insurance reasons. But, everyday that summer, if I would get up and wanted to go, he let me. That followed through in later life, as any of us kids needed to retrain in a career or in a transition, Dad had work for us. Summers and Christmas breaks, Dad had work for us and I am sure probably at his own expense, for I learned from Jim Finley that the boss gets paid last, and depending on the times, maybe not at all. He wouldn’t ask you to do anything he wouldn’t do himself and told me, “You can’t charge more for danger.”

Being a dad involves risk: For various reasons Mom and Dad concluded they needed to move to Texas in 1977. I remember early that spring Dad took off in our little Subaru station wagon-which had no air-conditioning, for Dallas. He came and worked all spring so he could move us to Dallas in June just as school let out. Armed only with a recommendation letter from his boss in Pennsylvania and his tool bag, motivated by love for his family, he packed up and headed for Dallas.

Dad worked for a few different commercial contractors and established Jim Finley Fireplace Specialist in September 1978, after concluding, “Hey, they don’t know how to build fireplaces here!” And for the next forty years he soldiered on taking care of his wife, family, and church.

As founding members of Christ Church, Dad hung the cross in the first sanctuary, and missions at Christ Church got started with the Finley’s. Unlike today’s leaders who lead loudly from behind, Jim Finley led quietly and humbly in front deflecting the credit to others. But that was Jim Finley, he was successful long before we ever met him, but many of us wouldn’t be successful without him. He did lead one of the construction mission trips to Costa Rica. After Jim’s retirement, the only regret he ever expressed to me was, “I wish I could have done more missions work.” But did he realize that because he let me be his tail as a boy on the construction site, I have been on multiple construction mission trips? Do you see? He led quietly. And I, by following a ‘Jim Finley’ learned to follow Christ into the mission field.

Dad trusted the Lord every day. I learned this dependence on God from Jim Finley as well. Many days, when work was slow, he would say, “Let’s get back to the phone machine and see what the Lord brought us for work.” And there were times when I learned good customer relations from him as sometimes we didn’t charge veterans or the elderly. Sowing was important and to this day when things get slow, I do some work for free.

I cannot express better or more concisely who Jim Finley was better than his boss of more than eighteen years in a recommendation letter dated April 15, 1977. I am reading from that letter:

“TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

We would like to recommend to you James Finley. Jim has been our main   foreman and right hand man for over 18 years. He is an expert brick craftsman and is capable of building everything from a simple fireplace to a 5 or 6-story building.

He is of good character, honest, dependable, conscientious, knowledgeable. He has the unique ability to get along well with people. He has been an asset in dealing with contractors of all natures. We have never in all the years he has worked for us had one complaint about him or his work from any contractor. And our men work for him readily. It was his daily job to keep production moving and he did so without antagonizing the men, but rather leading them and working along with them. He never expected more of them than he gave himself.

We are losing our best man and we know you will be more than satisfied with him.

Sincerely yours,

John F. Bubel, President

John F. Bubel, Inc.”

Just after 1:00am on September 15, 2018, we lost our best man, Jim Finley.

As I have had the privilege of working with my parents over the last sixteen years and enjoying them as an adult, many times I would thank the Lord for working with them and ask Him to make a note of each time I prayed as such. I asked that when Dad arrived in heaven last Saturday morning, he would be handed the record of those prayers and know how much I loved and enjoyed our time together, my best friend since I was 8…

I have often prayed over the years, that God would allow me to be at least half the man my dad, Jim Finley was: that I might have the same faithfulness in family, loving patience with endurance over the long-haul of my lifetime; that others would, at the end of my days, use words like capable, being of good character, honest, dependable, conscientious, knowledgeable…

--Various from Ecclesiastes 12--