Roy Finamore, photo courtesy of his sister, Marie Finamore.
Roy Finamore, a James Beard award-winning author and notable editor of cookbooks and lifestyle books, died on May 6 after a brief illness. He was 70.
He was born and grew up in New Rochelle, New York. After attending SUC Brockport and majoring in theater, he left to start a small theater company in Vermont with friends, later moving to New York City. Gradually the freelance editorial work he undertook to support his acting career made way for full-time publishing when he was hired as an editor of lifestyle and design books by Stewart, Tabori & Chang in 1983, where his authors included Tim Street-Porter, Chris Madden, and Abbie Zabar. He joined Clarkson Potter in 1989 as a senior editor and went on to publish award-winning and bestselling cookbooks by Martha Stewart, Ina Garten, Diana Kennedy, Jean Anderson, Anne Willan, Lee Bailey, Carole Walter, Tom Colicchio, Bobby Flay, and Gale Gand.