Fred Fincher ends just about every conversation he has with the phrase “Is there anything I can do for you?”

Fincher, 82, has been “doing” for people since he was 16, when he went to work to help support his mother and two sisters. A year later, after a friend was discharged from the military, he begged his mother to let him sign up for the Marines.

Fincher entered the service the week he became eligible, winding up a veteran of World War II and the Korean War. He was in Japan after the atomic bombs were dropped, and saw Beijing and the Forbidden City in China as a member of the military police. He’s perhaps most proud, however, of surviving a typhoon while on a ship for 21 days in the Pacific.

Fincher left the service a staff sergeant in 1953, but it’s his work with local veterans’ organizations since his return to LaGrange for which he’s perhaps best known. He joined American Legion post No. 75 in 1948, where he’s worn many hats and held many titles, including state legionnaire of the year in 1966.

When the local veterans’ organizations started coming up with fundraising ideas for the downtown memorial dedicated in 2005, Fincher was the first to suggest that brick pavers be sold. A patio of pavers full of names of local service men and women now fills the grassy space in front of the memorial. Fincher also came up with silver and gold paperweights to give memorial donors.

He’s always been an entrepreneur. But unlike his parents, when Fincher returned to LaGrange, he didn’t go to work in the textile mills.

“I’ve always worked,” Fincher said. “Working’s good for you.”

Fincher holds two patents: one for a golf club “lie level,” and one for “exotic oil,” a lotion he made that smoothes the skin.

He owned and operated both the Vernon Street Billiard Parlor and Fincher Tire Co., now Fryer’s Tire on New Franklin Road, for 18 years. He also managed the Pepsi Cola distributorship and even worked for LaGrange Daily News in the advertising department for 12 years. When management at the paper found out one of Fincher’s main jobs in the service was putting together catalogs of surplus property, they told him he could sell ads.

“When they told me the salary, I said, ‘When do I start?’ ” Fincher said. “I sold more ads than anyone there.”

By then, Fincher was married. He’d eventually have four children, and his home was near Callaway Stadium, perfect for taking the family to football games. Fincher was an announcer at the stadium for years.

He volunteered with other groups, becoming a president of the Optimist Club and an exalted ruler of the Elks Lodge. He has a 50-year pin from the Shrine Club.

And he keeps going. In 2004, Fincher was named to the state Veterans’ Services Board by Gov. Sonny Perdue. He was chairman in 2006 and 2007 and still serves, even though he has to get someone from the Veterans Services Department to drive him to Atlanta.

Still, when the pair gets back to LaGrange, Fincher’s got time to show the man a few tips for his golf game. And on Oct. 2, he remarried, to Gail Stone Altman.

Fincher expresses no interest in slowing down and even jokes that his recent health problems are restoring him.

“I’ve got a pacemaker and new knees,” he said. “They’re rebuilding me slowly.”

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.