July 2016: Donor of the Month featuring Bill Finnegan

We’ve chosen Bill Finnegan, '62, a BWSF Ambassador, as our July Donor of the Month for his enduring financial support.

Bill Finnegan, a New York City native, graduated from Villanova in 1962, with a BS in Mathematics. He spent the next five years in the United States Marine Corps, as a Marine Aviator. He finished that brief career as a Captain, having flown 69 combat missions in Viet Nam. He then began a long career in commercial aviation, beginning with Pan American World Airways, based at JFK in New York City, flying B707s.

When PAA began to have financial troubles, he determined that he needed a back-up plan and returned to school, receiving two masters degrees, one in Applied Mathematics (1974) and one in Urban and Policy Science (1976), both from SUNY, Stony Brook, New York. The latter degree enabled him to get a job as an Operations Research Analyst with the Federal Express Corporation in Memphis, TN, that same year, after being furloughed from Pan Am. He was named as Director of Flight Operations Planning with the company before returning to flying in 1980, this time as a Federal Express Crewmember.

While in Memphis, he became involved in community activities, serving as the President of Board of the MARC, an association that supports people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, and was chosen by the mayor to serve on the Private Industry Council (PIC). He also felt called to serve the Church and, following three years of training, was ordained as a Permanent Deacon in 1981. (He will celebrate 35 years as a Deacon in August 2016.) He was further called to serve the Church and in 1991 received a degree in Canon Law (JCL) from Catholic University of America in Washington, DC.

In 1992, after having flown as a First Officer in Falcons, B727s, and DC-10s for FedEx in Memphis, he was awarded a Captain vacancy in the MD-11 in Anchorage, AK. He retired from flying on 01/01/01. He and Diane, his wife of 52 years, split their time between Anchorage, AK & Mesa, AZ, when they are not traveling, especially to visit their four children and eight grandchildren. He watched the Wildcats win the National Championship in basketball in a pub in Melbourne, Australia (live)! Deacon Bill serves at Holy Cross Parish in both Mesa and Anchorage, along with serving as a Judge in the Tribunals of Phoenix and Anchorage. Thank you, Bill, for giving at the Ambassador level and for serving as a 2016-2017 Judge.