He was born on October 19, 1863, in Grand Ridge, Illinois, the oldest son of James Gibson Finley and Lydia Margaret McCombs.

His father was the great-grandson of the Reverend James Finley, the first minister, it is believed, to settle permanently beyond the Allegheny Mountains in Western Pennsylvania, and brother of Dr. Samuel Finley, President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in the middle of the eighteenth century.

His position on the Times placed him in contact with the great explorers and fliers of the day, who signed their names for him on a terrestrial globe, which he presented to the Society in 1929.

John H. Finley died while sleeping of a coronary embolism the morning of March 7, 1940 in New York City.

[2] During his long and distinguished career he received honorary degrees from over thirty colleges and universities, and twelve governments bestowed thirteen decorations on him.