Linda (Dueler) Finch, also known as Linda Finch Doctor (born March 13, 1951), is an American businesswoman, aviator, and aviation historian from San Antonio, Texas. Finch had 30 years of experience in the construction industry, making prefabricated buildings, and operating healthcare facilities. She began her career managing nursing homes in her twenties and owned several nursing homes in her thirties. Finch became a pilot and purchased an airplane that she used in her nursing-home business. She later added construction firms to her portfolio.
Finch's primary aircraft interest was World War II-era planes. She has restored vintage aircraft and has participated in air shows and airplane races. Finch became a member of the Confederate Air Force (now Commemorative Air Force).
Finch is best known for her 1997 World Flight, which recreated (and completed) Amelia Earhart's world-record attempt. She flew a restored 1935 Lockheed Electra 10E, which was the type of plane that Earhart flew in 1937 on her around-the-world attempt. Finch's Electra was modified, with a Global Positioning System, increased fuel capacity, and modern communications equipment. She followed Earhart's route as closely as she could and completed the 26,000-mile trip around the world in 73 days. With Pratt & Whitney (who funded the restoration and flight), Finch established the You Can Soar educational and motivational program, which enabled students in 200,000 classrooms to follow her flight. Its website was viewed 30 million times.
Flying Magazine states that she is "a Veteran aircraft restorer and [an] accomplished warbird pilot."
Early life and education
Linda Dueler was born in San Antonio on March 13, 1951, to Mary Beth and Leslie Dueler. Her father worked for a phone company. She grew up with two brothers in Highland Hills, a neighborhood in San Antonio. When Linda was a teen, the family moved outside the city limits to a neighborhood with good schools and where they would have a better standard of living.
Finch left John Marshall High School at the age of 16. Finch worked as a bookkeeper in New Jersey, Texas, South Dakota, Montana, and Illinois. Some of Finch's jobs were at nursing facilities. She studied accounting to further her career at Southwest Texas State University and she earned her high school equivalency certificate.
Marriages and children
At the age of 16, Finch married an Army soldier who was about the age of 19. Her husband left for Vietnam after they were married. Their daughter July was born in February 1969; the couple was divorced in 1970. She was married a second time, during which her son Leslie was born about 1977 in San Antonio. Her third marriage, in 1983 to businessman Delos Finch, lasted for ten years. Her third child is her granddaughter (born about 1995) whom she adopted. She lived in San Antonio, where she owned a farm and cattle ranch near Mason, Texas. She also resides in Denton, Texas.
In the mid-1980s, Finch met Laird Doctor at a Reno air show. She became Linda Finch Doctor when they were married in the summer of 1998 at their ranch outside of Dallas. Laird was critically injured in April 1999 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin at an annual event of the Experimental Aircraft Association. Laird had been taxiing a vintage Corsair F4-U when he clipped the wing of another plane that sat on the runway. The Corsair's wing split, the plane cartwheeled, and then it burst into flames. Laird's spinal cord was injured, but it was not fractured. He was left with some paralysis.
Business career
Finch has owned and operated retirement communities, nursing homes, and a construction firm that manufactured prefabricated buildings. She purchased her first nursing home in 1979, followed soon after by a second nursing home, both of which Finch received loans from family members to help finance the purchases. Finch acquired five more nursing homes over the next two years, with a total of 750 residents. She owns the company Care Centers Management Corporation, a nursing home management company, that in 1997 owned four nursing homes and one retirement property. At that time, her businesses employed 500 people and earned $14 million annually. About the time that Finch was landing at Oakland International Airport on May 28, 1997, completing her World Flight 1997, her name was added to a suit filed by the Texas Attorney General's office. The suit, filed in 1994, addressed deficiencies in patient care. Finch stated that any deficiencies were corrected by that time.