Horace Eugene "Gene" Finigan, 89, of Cleveland, Tennessee, died Monday morning, March 20, 2017.
He was born November 19, 1927 in Freeport, Nova Scotia, Canada to Austin and Gladys Thurber Finigan.
He and his family moved to California in 1960 and later to Nevada, settling in Reno. Gene moved to Cleveland in 2004 after the passing of his beloved wife, Mary "Margaret" Silver Finigan. At an early age Gene was a lobster fisherman. Due to the difficulties of the job, his father encouraged he and his brother Dick to leave the fishing business. Both became bankers. In 1959 Gene and his family emigrated to the U.S. where he continued in banking, finally leaving that career for one in the housing business. He worked for Howard Homes in Las Vegas and Reno as a project manager overseeing the building on 1,000's of houses. He later went into business with his son Mike at Perma Stone of Nevada. Once he moved to Cleveland he worked with his son Chris as a manager and handyman in his rental house business. Gene was never one to sit still and had many hobbies throughout his life, the most interesting being the building of a biplane. He was in the process of getting his small plane pilots license when he found out a non citizen could not get a final license. By the time he got his U.S. citizenship, he had sold the plane. They plane flew, but never with Gene in it.
He was preceded in death by wife Margaret Finigan; parents Austin & Gladys Finigan; sister Carol Harvey; and brother Richard Finigan.
He is survived by son Chris Finigan of Cleveland; son Mike Finigan; daughter-in-law Linda; grandson Austin of Reno; many friends including honorary sons Jonathan Hammond and John Haun of Cleveland; nieces and nephews in Canada; and family cats Countess, Ben, BW & Rex.
No service is scheduled at this time.
Companion Funeral Home has charge of the arrangements.