‘Staunch advocate’ for education Lew Finch dies

CEDAR RAPIDS — Former Cedar Rapids school district leader Lew Finch — who helped secure passage of the last bond to be approved by voters in the district — died last week. He was 87.

Finch, who died July 16, was superintendent of the district for a decade at the turn of the century. He navigated controversy reminiscent to challenges the district faces today, including a bond issue, budget cuts and staffing reductions.

"Given the choice between cutting programs and raising taxes, I will choose raising taxes," Finch said in an interview with The Gazette in 2004.

"I'm not one to stick a finger in the air and see which way the wind's blowing or which way the herd is running," he said. "Sometimes leadership means to do things that aren't very popular and, when put to a vote, wouldn't pass."

In an interview with The Gazette in May 2022, Finch said there was always a group of vocal critics, but there wasn’t the bitterness and volatile language boards are seeing today.

It’s a “reflection of what’s going on in America,” said Finch, who worked as a superintendent of public schools for 30 years.

Finch was superintendent of the district from 1994 to 2004. He was the second executive director of the Urban Education Network of Iowa, a consortium of Iowa’s largest public school districts, from 2006 to 2020.

Under Finch’s leadership, district voters in 2000 approved a $46 million bond issue — the largest in the state’s history at the time — which funded the construction of Viola Gibson Elementary School and other facility projects.

“You can see what happened to that area of Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha with that new school. It just exploded,” said Ron Corbett with the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance, who knew Finch professionally throughout his career.

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“He was always a staunch advocate for public schools, especially funding,” said Corbett, who has served as the chief executive officer of the Cedar Rapids Chamber of Commerce, a state representative and mayor of Cedar Rapids. “He spent a lot of time lobbying the Iowa Legislature and advocating on behalf of the Cedar Rapids Community School District and all public schools in Iowa.”

Voters also during Finch’s tenure at the Cedar Rapids district approved a $25 million instructional support levy in 1996 after rejecting a larger, 10-year levy the previous year.

Finch testified before Congress about school needs and was named Iowa’s Superintendent of the Year in 2004.

Before coming to Cedar Rapids, Finch was superintendent of the Jefferson County School District in Colorado, where in 1999 a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School.

Ron Olson, a former Cedar Rapids school board member who helped hire Finch, said the Columbine massacre affected Finch deeply.

“He was there just five years before that happened. He was in contact constantly with the administrators there because of the people he had worked with during his tenure,” Olson said.

Finch was a “gifted speaker,” who “used his voice passionately to support and advocate for public schools,” Olson said. Grabbing a cup of coffee with Finch would quickly turn from “how are you” to public education, he said.

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Mary Meisterling, who also served on the school board when Finch was superintendent, said Finch was “enthusiastic, upbeat and knowledgeable.”

“He always said public education was a mile long and an inch thick,” Meisterling remembered. “You want to impart all the knowledge you can to kids, but there’s so much to learn, and you can only go so deep.”

“It was just his life,” Mesterling said. “It was his lifelong passion for public education and excellence for all students.”

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