Marie Fink

Marie Therese Fink, 76, died on May 17. She was born Marie Waldron on Feb. 22, 1934 in Philadelphia, the daughter of Martin and Helen Waldron. She attended John W. Halla-han Catholic School for Girls in Philadelphia and Rosemont College, where she was a member of the Kistler Society (equivalent to Phi Beta Kappa). She married John F. (Jack) Fink on May 31, 1955, the day after her graduation from Rosemont. She and her husband spent the next eight months in Gulfport, Miss., where Jack was stationed as a First Lt. in the U.S. Air Force. In January 1956 they moved to Hunt-ington, Ind., where Jack was employed by the Catholic publishing company Our Sunday Visitor. They moved to Indianapolis in 1984 when Jack became editor of The Criterion, the newspaper for the Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Marie was the mother of seven children, all of whom were born in Huntington. However, she always considered her children?s spouses as her children, too, so she be-lieved that she was the mother of seven girls and five boys. While living in Huntington, Marie was active in various civic organizations as well as those associated with her children?s schools. She was a member of St. Mary?s C...[more]

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olic Church in Huntington. In Indianapolis, she was an active member of St. Luke the Evangelist Church, serving as an extraordinary minister of Communion, a member of the Good Samaritan organization, and a past member of the St. Luke School Commission. She participated in the Bridge Club, playing a game that she thoroughly enjoyed. She was also a member of the Procter Club, Our Discussion Club, the St. Augustine Guild, and the Guardian Angels Guild, and she was a volunteer at St. Vincent Hospice. She was a member of the Kappa Kappa Kappa social sorority in both Huntington and Indianapolis. She was employed for a number of years as manager of the Directory and Year-book for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, both preparing the content for the annual book and soliciting the advertising that supported it. She also sold fine jewelry on a part-time basis at both Ayres and Lazarus department stores. Marie loved to travel with her husband while he was an officer in national and international Catholic press associations. She also planned and helped to lead pilgrimages sponsored by both Our Sunday Visitor in Huntington and The Criterion in Indianapolis. Her greatest planning feat, though, was when she and Jack took their entire family, 25 members, to Ireland for two weeks in 2005 to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. They chartered their own bus and Marie planned the itinerary to include stops of both his-toric and familial importance, including a chance for her and Jack to renew their wedding vows in the same church where her grandparents were baptized. Marie was regarded as an excellent hostess for large dinner parties, Christmas parties, bridge parties, family gatherings, and smaller gatherings with friends. The chil-dren?s party she organized on Christmas Eve for 21 years while she lived in Huntington switched to a party on the Sunday before Christmas for many years after she moved to Indianapolis. She was also a master gardener and spent many hours in her gardens mak-ing the world beautiful. Marie is survived by her husband of 55 years and her children: Regina, who lives in Santa Monica, Calif.; Dr. Barbara, of Columbus, Ohio; Lt. Col. Robert and his wife Maria of Brentwood, Tenn.; Stephen and his wife Tonya of Fort Wayne; Therese Meyer-hoff and her husband Steve of St. Louis; David and his wife Heather of Indianapolis; John and his wife Candice of San Diego; 11 grandchildren; a great-grandchild to be born in November; and a brother, Edward, of Long Island, N.Y. Visitation will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday, May 21, at Leppert Mortuary, Nora Chapel, and from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, May 22, at St. Luke Catholic Church. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 a.m. at St. Luke Catholic Church with inurnment in the mausoleum at Our Lady of Peace Cemetery. You are invited to visit the website www.leppertmortuary.com where you may share a personal memory of Marie, sign the guest book and before her death Marie asked that memorial contributions be made to the Little Sisters of the Poor at St. Augustine Home.