Highly revered Chicago pastor and civic leader Dr. Leon Finney Jr. has passed away at 82 years.

Dr. Finney died Friday morning at the University of Chicago Hospital, his family stated.

He was the founding pastor at Christ Apostolic Church, which later took over and restored the Metropolitan Church in Bronzeville.

A close friend, Hermene Hartman, told the Chicago Sun-Times his death came after a long-term illness. In 2019, a spokesperson for the pastor said, he had cardiovascular disease in 2016 and the following year, he had an open-heart surgery.

Being ill did not prevent the Reverend from attending the 30th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Breakfast held by the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. In March, he was in discussion with the CEO of Frackle Media Group for their assistance with a Metro Media project.

He was a valiant leader of the city’s southside communities since the 1960s,” writes Dorothy Brown, the Cook County Clerk. She proudly recalls Finney fighting off slumlords. Moreover, he persistently worked toward achieving economic and housing growth in Bronzeville and Woodlawn.

Brown fondly remembers the mentorship and support he offered other community activists and elected officials whose focus was to improve the quality of life for Blacks in Chicago.

Secretary of State Jesse White says Finney was a “good man who made a great contribution to making Chicago a better place. He was a strong voice for the disadvantaged.” His death is a major loss for Chicago.

“He’s a guy who had four, five jobs at any one time and on top of that he decided he wanted to be a minister,” said James Montgomery, Dr. Finney’s friend. “He was a loss to the community as a community organizer and as a person who cared for his people.”

Leon Finney also established the Woodlawn Organization and fought to revitalize the South Side neighborhood through economic and housing development. He also owned Leon’s BBQ, Urban Broadcast Media and taught at several universities.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) said Finney was his professor at the McCormick Theological Seminary. In a statement, Rush referred to him as “an organizer’s organizer, who was on the frontline of change throughout the land.”