David Finkelstein, longtime Baltimore-Washington food broker, passed away peacefully on July 19 at his home in Pikesville, MD at the age of 92.
Finkelstein was born in Wilkes-Barre, PA and attended the University of Miami on a football scholarship and later Penn State University before beginning his career in the food business in the late 1940s with Del Monte.
After being drafted, he served in the Korean War and then resumed his job with Del Monte. However, within a year, Finkelstein moved to Baltimore to start his own brokerage business, Alto Sales.
In 1956, Finkelstein received a spontaneous phone call from John Kluge, who at the time operated a much larger brokerage firm, Kluge & Company, in the Washington, DC area. The two met clandestinely at 2:00 a.m. in a Washington, DC Hot Shoppe restaurant and Kluge offered Finkelstein the opportunity to be his partner. The deal was consummated shortly after that serendipitous meeting. The firm would be known as Kluge, Finkelstein & Co.
Kluge, who at the time had other business interests, shortly left the day-to-day operation to relocate to New York where he formed Metromedia, which ultimately became one of the largest media companies in the country. Finkelstein became John Kluge’s lifelong friend, noting that when they completed their merger in 1956, there was never a contract signed.
“I knew from that original Hot Shoppes meeting, that I could trust John like a brother; he and I worked on many deals after Kluge, Finkelstein, and the trust, respect and love that we shared never wavered,” Finkelstein recalled following Kluge’s death in 2010.
Over the next 20 years, Kluge Finkelstein continued to grow its business, representing some of the top manufacturers in the food industry. The company also increased its presence in the region by acquiring several of its competitors, including Penn Sales, Becton-Deblitz and Richardson & Associates.
Finkelstein retired in 1993 after his firm’s merger with another large Baltimore-Washington broker, The Leaman Company, forming KLF. Ultimately, the firm was acquired by Advantage Sales & Marketing.
Finkelstein was a charter member of the Maryland Food Industry’s Hall of Fame’s original class in 2003.
Since his retirement, Finkelstein kept busy with his interests and philanthropic endeavors, including owning horses and contributing to many charities including Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Foundation for Fighting Blindness.
David Finkelstein is survived by his beloved wife, Harriet Finkelstein (nee Goldberg); children, Michael (Juli) Finkelstein and Esther (Theodore) Solomon; grandchildren, Nicole Leigh Natoli (Brian Michael Natoli) and Andrew Robert Finkelstein; and great-grandchild, Cameron Natoli. He was predeceased by his parents, Irving and Esther Finkelstein and brother Robert Fine.
The family asked that in lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory may be sent to Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan Avenue, Floor 17, Chicago, IL 60601.