[From the Ontario District's newsletter, The Trillium, issue 59-03, July - September, 2005 , Waldo Redekop, editor.]

Dick Fincham
1942 — 2005

By Ted McAlpine

On July 28, 2005, the district lost  a great quartetter and music director with the passing of Dick Fincham. Dick had been diagnosed with cancer about five years ago, went into remission for a time but the dreaded disease returned and claimed his life.

A member of the Association of Past Ontario Champions (APOC), Dick sang with the 1969 and 1970 district champions and International representatives, The Chordjamers  and also with  4 Karat Gold, two time International quarter finalists in 1980 and 1981. He also directed the Oakville Entertainers to a ninth-place finish in the 1981 International chorus contest in Detroit.

I had the distinct pleasure of visiting with Dick two days before his passing. We talked about our long standing friendship; we laughed and we  cried. We reminisced about our wonderful experience singing together with Jim Turner and Bob Davis and the overwhelming excitement Dick experienced as we sat together and heard the announcement in Detroit that his chorus had placed ninth. As he indicated with a smile, “Hey, not bad for the first time out of the chute.”

Despite the pain he was obviously enduring, he continued to show his sense of humour. Back in the late seventies we  sang for the first time together in a chapter quartet we called The Mississippi Gunrunners and Paddle Wheel Repair Company. Dick, with a smile on his face, indicated that with a name like that we just had to be destined for something greater! What a guy.

Dick who is survived by his wife Carole, son Glenn and  daughter Alana, will be missed by many, including yours truly.     k