Stringing for The Exponent for a buck a story during high school was just the beginning of an outstanding career in journalism for Jerry Finch. Today, he is ombudsman and senior editor of the Richmond-Times Dispatch, Virginia’s largest newspaper in circulation. He joined the paper in 1955 as a copy editor, eventually becoming managing editor, a title which he held for 20 years. In 1995, he received the George Mason Award of the Society of Professional Journalists for his outstanding contributions to Virginia journalism. In 1993, he was awarded the Isaiah Thomas Newspaper Preservation Prize of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Jerry was graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1950 with a degree in journalism. There, he was the first president of what was to become the Sigma Delta Chi journalism honorary society. During World War II, he served overseas in the U.S. Army Air Forces.