Marvin Sherman Fink's Obituary
Obituary
Marvin Sherman Fink
August 2, 1923–October 4, 2022
Born August 2, 1923, in the Bronx, NYC, son of Irving Finklestein and Bertha (nee, Sherman).
Graduated P.S. 187 in Washington Heights, NYC in June 1937; Stuyvesant HS, 15th St. and 2nd Ave., NYC in 1941; and from Brooklyn College, BA in Science, June 1947.
Was employed as a Research Technician and performed Biochemical Research studies with Third Medical Research Unit of New York University from 1948–1951 on Welfare Island, NYC.
Married Molly Geist of NYC on July 18, 1948.
Worked as a Research Scientist with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Red Bank, NJ from 1951–1962.
Worked as a Staff Engineer with IBM Corp. in Yorktown Heights, NY, Poughkeepsie, NY, and Burlington, VT, 1962–1972.
Worked as a Consultant in Health Physics by Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and assigned to NASA’s Wallops Island Facility in Chincoteague, VA, 1972–1974.
Worked as an Industrial Hygienist for the DC Department of Environmental Services in Washington, DC, 1974–1983. Bought and moved into a house in Fairfax, VA.
Received a Master’s Degree in Environmental Science from George Washington University in 1983.
Worked as Bureau Safety and Health Manager for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington, DC, 1983–1988.
Was hired as Department Safety and Health Manager by the Department of Justice from 1988 until his retirement in June 1994.
Sold his Fairfax property in December 1989 and bought a 37-acre farm in Taylorstown, VA, growing grapes (one hundred vines) and making wine.
His beloved wife, Molly Fink (Geist), died on October 27, 2000, of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
He met Gale Burwell, future companion and significant other, on March 4, 2001, at a Wine Society meeting.
Became a resident of Buckingham’s Choice (BC), a continuing care retirement community in Adamstown, MD in 2001 and sold his Taylorstown, VA property June 2005.
Became active at BC as an “in-house” news reporter, President of BC Wine Society, President of BC Players, Chairman of Art Group, was a photographer, a portrait painter, and was a member of The Skeptics.
Gale Burwell died on July 22, 2008, of ovarian cancer.
He met Marlene Welch during a rehearsal of the play, Enchanted April, where she played the Italian maid. She became his new love on December 4, 2014.
Throughout his career as a scientist and engineer, he also acted in and directed plays in adult and children’s community theatre groups in all the locations he lived. These areas include Red Bank, NJ, Poughkeepsie, NY, Chincoteague, VA, Fairfax, VA, Loudoun County, VA, and Adamstown, MD. He started a play production group at BC in Adamstown, MD in 2005. He was also an avid tennis player. He began making wine in 1967, started growing grapes in 1984, and won awards in wine competitions. He started portrait painting in 2005 and began to study digital photography in 2007. Many of his photographs have been exhibited at BC.
He is survived by a son, Dr. Kenneth I. Fink of Whiteville, NC, daughters Irene R. Day of Sterling, VA, and Tina R. Bickmore. He has five grandchildren, including Jason Bickmore, Lisa Day, Marlene Fink, Joshua Fink, and Sabrina Fink. He has two great-grandchildren, Jacob Bickmore, and Caleb Bickmore.
To send flowers to the family, please visit our floral store.
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