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Robert Corpening Finley was born in Marion, North Carolina on November 7, 1905. He attended public schools in Asheville, North Carolina and graduated from high school in 1923. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Duke University in 1930 and his law degree from the same school in 1934. While working for the federal government in Washington, D.C., he attended Georgetown University and received his Master of Laws degree in 1936. Finley worked for a number of federal agencies in the Roosevelt "New Deal" administration: Federal Housing Administration, 1934-1935; Alcohol Control Administration, 1935-1937; Department of Justice, probation officer for U. S. District Court, Bureau of Prisons, Western District of North Carolina, 1937-1938; and, Department of Justice, Alien Property, Custodian and Claims Division, 1938-1940. In 1940 Finley moved to Olympia to take a position as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington. He served in that position until 1942. He continued to serve the state of Washington in various capacities until 1945 when he entered private law practice in Seattle and Renton. In the fall of 1950 Finley was elected to the Washington State Supreme Court. While on the Court he served as Chief Justice from 1961 to 1962 and again from 1967 to 1968. He was a possible nominee to the U. S. Supreme Court in 1963 and from 1967 to 1970. Judge Finley served on the high court of Washington until his death on March 23, 1976.