[5] Finch grew up in Manhattan and attended the Buckley School and Phillips Academy, where he was awarded the George Lauder Prize for Excellence in English History[6] prior to his graduation in 1937.

[8] After graduating from law school, Finch argued multiple cases before the United States Supreme Court.

He eventually joined Allegheny Power System where he was elected president and chief executive officer in 1971.

[14] Ironically, his first cousin, once removed, Edward Ridley Finch Cox,[15] married Nixon's daughter.

[16][17] Their son Charles B. Finch, Jr., born in 1954,[18] made a brief run for the United States Congress in 1984 and also ran for New York's 15th congressional district on the East Side of Manhattan in 1986.