Chuck Finder Hangs It Up: Two Favorite Articles

Longtime Pittsburgh Post Gazette writer Chuck Finder has had enough. He bid farewell the other day.

Finder had a purposeful style, so different from the normal. It made you concentrate on the work, the meaning, the depth.  We don’t know why he would always get the stories that were tragic, but as he did with the Steve Courson story, he nailed it.  Wait, that’s why isn’t it?

Finder’s purposful style touched others.   And not just the reader.  On several occassions, he would leave me taking a deep breath after reading his column.  It was meaningul. The stories were about loss, but in such little space, Finder would capture the loss and give it meaning.

Chuck wrote the stories that families were proud to read years later. But it doesn’t matter how much time passes, when you read Finder’s work, it still has purpose.  It still gets you in the gut too.

One could only imagine if Finder had more white space, perhaps even a series that would dig into the tremendous, yet tragic Tim Hall story.  Hell, maybe I would have made the cut, I was Hall’s roommate at Robert Morris.   Until Hall found a better one.

For the Post Gazette, I don’t think they will find a better one than Chuck.

Clipped from: www.post-gazette.com (share this clip)

The one article that haunted me way back in 2003, still sent a chill through me last night–after the second paragraph.   The story on Mars wrestling coach Glenn Clark will do the same to you.

Damn.  I am going to miss you Chuck Finder.

Clipped from: www.post-gazette.com (share this clip)