Hidden-Gem Hunter and Enemy of Dirty Dishes
Introducing Jeremy Fincher! Advertising professional, bird enthusiast and a man who dreams of driving a supercar around a racetrack, but draws the line at a sink full of dirty dishes.
For Newspaper Week, we gave Jeremy the 20-questions treatment. His answers took us from small-town Oklahoma to Washington, D.C., with a few fishing stops along the way.
Jeremy has been with the newspaper for one year and four months and earned the Keystone Gusher’s 2026 Marketing Award. His preferred title? Brand manager or marketing liaison. His approach? Good, oldfashioned relationships.
His week begins with making sure ads reach all three newspapers. Wednesdays find him holding down headquarters, answering phones, helping customers, attending sales webinars and updating client notes. Thursdays and Fridays send him out to visit businesses, make connections and bring in new advertising.
He isn’t officially a member of a civic organization, but he regularly attends chamber events and ribbon cuttings across the Cimarron Valley.
His favorite part is discovering hidden gems in communities he thought he knew. Whether or not an owner becomes a client, he loves hearing their story. His least favorite part? The repetitive paperwork waiting when he gets back.
He says readers might be surprised that just five full-time employees produce three weeklynewspapers,theCimarronWeekender and seasonal publications. Making it happen takes teamwork, quick thinking, negotiation and plenty of collaboration.
Before newspapers, Jeremy worked on drinking-water and air-quality issues, advised federal agencies and testified in Washington. He helped turn technical information into steps people could use to improve their lives. That same desire to serve brought him to an open interview, where he was hired on the spot.
Born in Marlow and raised in Duncan, Jeremy grew up with backyard gardens, bicycles, fishing poles and an assortment of animals. Dogs, turtles, salamanders, fish and snakes all made appearances — along with an Australian dingo whose burrow required his father to hold Jeremy by the ankles while he reached for her puppies.
His granny helped him land his first job at Cable’s Meat Center at 14. He worked registers, stocked shelves, helped at the deli and loaded trucks, spending hours in subzero freezers. Delightful in summer. Less delightful in winter.
His perfect day now features temperatures in the 70s, fishing poles, a campfire, a “hobo dinner” cooking in the coals and a Foster’s. He also enjoys camping, hiking and kayaking.
But home means family. After their longtime Cushing house burned on Christmas Day a few years ago, they moved through hotels and emergency housing before buying their first home. The losses changed his outlook: Wherever his family gathers is where he belongs.
For entertainment, he wishes he could watch “Kung Fu Hustle” for the first time again. For adventure, he’d drive a supercar around the Nürburgring. His dream garage includes an old-school Jaguar and, naturally, a Bugatti.
Coffee smells like childhood, although he doesn’t drink it. At 8, he wanted to study reptiles or work in sports medicine for a team such as the Atlanta Braves. He thinks that boy would be proud of the hurdles he has overcome and his work protecting children’s drinking water.
Career highlights include producing the climate-change short film “One Water” and challenging an EPA official’s plans during a Washington meeting. He worried he had overstepped; his colleagues responded with high-fives.
Jeremy prides himself on persistence. Tell him no, and he’ll try harder. Outside work, he keeps a close circle of family and friends, including business owners he met through the newspaper. Recently, playing video games with his daughter has joined his outdoor hobbies.
He also passed OSU’s highest-level ornithology class and can identify birds by their calls, silhouettes, wingbeats or plumage.
His one request for household magic? Make the dishes disappear. After years of dishwashing jobs, including at a nursing home with hundreds of residents, he says he would rather return to working on a pig farm.
There you have him: Jeremy Fincher! Ready to hear your story, help your business or identify that bird outside your window. Just don’t hand him the dishcloth.