By Joann Groff
Assistant Sports Editor
An optimist is defined as a person who has an inclination toward hopefulness and confidence. Someone with a belief that good must ultimately prevail over evil.
Other people choose to describe “the eternal optimist” as a particular man, Hayden Hunter Finley, a Pepperdine professor who died last Wednesday from pneumonia at 71.
Finley felt ill Sunday, Jan. 5, and was prescribed medication from his doctor, which he told his wife, did not seem to help. Wednesday, his condition worsened, as he complained of a severe sore throat. His wife, Heidi, decided to take him to the hospital, but Finley was having trouble walking. He collapsed and lost consciousness before leaving their home. A neighbor attempted CPR and found no pulse. There was no recovery.
Finley was a popular adjunct Communication Division professor at Pepperdine, serving the university for 13 years. Teaching was recognized at the funeral as one of the highlights in Finley’s life.
“I love this job so much,” Finley told a friend a few years back. “I would do it even if they didn’t pay me.”
The students recognized his passion for educating, and many students regard Professor Finley as the most uplifting teacher they’ve had at Pepperdine.
“I was always happy to see him in class and he was always happy to see us,” said freshman Chase Ferguson, a member of the last full class Finley taught, speech 180. “He gave us a lot of freedom, that’s why everyone loved the class so much. He never put us down and he was a teacher that always gave us a lot of hope in whatever we needed it for.”
Classmates said they not only appreciated his class and the way it was run, but the fact that Finley’s character was so apparent through his teaching.
“He was just truly a good, genuine person,” freshman Becky Denniston said. “He always made class really enjoyable because of the kind of person he was.”
A Pepperdine senior cherishes her time with Finley during her freshman year. After having six speech teachers in her life, she was inspired by the passion and drive of the professor.
“He was the best teacher I’ve ever had,” senior Kanoe Hook said. “He fostered my appreciation of speech and my development as a speaker, and I feel very confident with the skills I learned in his class. He made sure I could apply what I had learned to anything I put my mind to.”
Hook said that she valued Finley’s sense of understanding.
“He sympathized with students,” Hook said. “He knew we had a lot going on outside of class, within our own majors. He recognized that unlike most teachers did. If I ever had any problems, I always felt like I could talk to him.”
Services were held at Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary Chapel in Thousand Oaks last Sunday. Morris Womack, Finley’s best friend, presided over the funeral. He played golf with Finley on New Year’s Eve.
“He told me that day: ‘Morris, I have a home with God waiting for me, and I’m ready to go when he wants to take me,’ ” Womack said to the crowd. More than 250 people filled the chapel and overflow room.
Womack taught Finley at Pepperdine, as well as Finley’s daughter, Sheri. They worked side-by-side as captain and chaplain of the Malibu Sheriff’s department, and were writing a book together. The pair lived two miles away from one another, and maintained a close friendship for nearly 35 years.
Pepperdine’s Communication Division Chair Dr. Milton Shatzer and Vice Chancellor of Major Gifts Lou Drobnick also spoke at the funeral.
“He was a joy, a light, a treasure,” Shatzer said. “When I used to ask him how he was doing, he used to say, ‘I’m fantastic! If I was any better, I’d be twins.’ I have never met a man happier with life.”
Finley had many passions around the community aside from teaching. He was very involved in various Optimist clubs in the area, organizations who foster an optimistic way of life, dedicating themselves to the full development of their potential in order to provide service to the community.
Finley founded the Agoura chapter and eventually the Las Virgenes chapter, serving as their first president and secretary/treasurer respectively. He was said to live by the creed of the optimist, not only at meetings, but every day of his life.
“He lived that creed better than anyone,” Dr. Kameron Johnson said, current president of the Las Virgenes Optimist Club. “At meetings he recited it louder and with more enthusiasm than anyone.”
Shatzer agreed that Finley believed the creed with an intense passion incomparable to most who were a part of the program.
“He was the absolute embodiment of that creed,” Shatzer said. “He was such a pleasure to be around, and always had a joke to tell to brighten someone’s day.”
Finley also had a career with the local sheriff’s department, earning the rank of captain at the Malibu station before retiring as commissioner of youth services in 1983.
Finley was the executive director of the Malibu Disaster Recovery project and a Pepperdine University Crest Associate. He also served as a member of the Crest Advisory Board.
He received a master’s degree in public management in 1975 from Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business and a master’s in public communication from Seaver College in 1980. He also earned a master’s in criminal justice from the University of Southern California.
Finley is survived by his wife of 48 years, Heidi, his children, Steve, Stewart and Sheri Finley Dixon, and several grandchildren.
The Optimist Creed
PROMISE YOURSELF:
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something inside them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to except only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press onto the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
January 16, 2003