Herbert Lewis Fink, painter, printmaker, sculptor, and educator, born was in Providence, Rhode Island on September 8, 1921. He studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1941, he received is B.F.A. degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1949, his M.F.A. from Yale University in 1956, and he also studied for a year at the Art Students League and with John Frazier, Gabor Peterdi, Arshile Gorky and Rico Lebrun.

Fink taught at the Rhode Island School of Design between 1951 and 1961, Yale University between 1956 and 1961, and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale from 1961 to 1987. He was the first recipient of the Distinguished Professor of Art award from Southern Illinois University. He was also a recipient of two Chaloner Fellowships, a Tiffany Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Ford Foundation Purchase Award.

His work is in the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Georgia Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Yale University Art Gallery.

Herbert Lewis Fink died in September 4, 2006, in Rockport, Maine.