Alan Finder –an American journalist and a longtime employee of the New York Times ‑ died on March 24, 2020, due to complications brought on by COVID-19.
Alan A. Finder was born in Brooklyn and raised in Nassau County, New York, graduating from Valley Stream South High School. He earned a B.A. in history at the University of Rochester in 1969 and an M.A. in American studies at Yale University in 1972.
From 1974 to 1979, he worked at The Record in Hackensack, New Jersey, and then until 1983 at Newsday on Long Island. Finder worked for 27 years at the New York Times and retired in December 2011. Times executive editor Dean Baquet described Finder as "one of Metro's stars in the 1980s and 1990s, a big writer in a big, hugely competitive era for New York City news". In retirement, he continued to work as an editor for The Record, Newsday, and on the international desk of the New York Times.
Finder died on March 24, 2020, at The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey. He had recently tested positive for COVID-19.