Peter A. Flynn Sr.

1932 - 2021

Peter A. Flynn, Sr.

Jan. 6, 1932 - Aug. 10, 2021

RESTON, VA - Peter A. Flynn, Sr., a longtime resident of Reston, VA, died at home, surrounded by his family, a year ago on Aug. 10, 2021.

Peter was born in Auburn on Jan. 6, 1932 to parents Dorothy "Dot" (Bohman) Flynn and E. Paul Flynn. With his younger sister Sally, he grew up in Auburn and attended public schools there until transferring to Phillips Academy-Andover, and then attending Yale University and the Yale School of Medicine.

Reverence for nature and an innate interest in science were unifying forces in his life, ones that originated in his carefree boyhood in the fields, woods and water of the Finger Lakes Region. He loved to recall the days when he swam, boated, sledded, and biked around Auburn without much parental oversight in an era of safety when most Auburnians did not even lock their doors. One particularly memorable story was about groups of boys who would jump off a loading dock at a former ice house on Owasco Lake carrying heavy stones, vying to see who could walk the farthest on the lake bottom across "The Cut".

Ever industrious, Pete spent his high school and college summer vacations painting houses and working in a number of factories which were still important to Auburn's economy in the 1940s including Auburn Button Works and Dunn & McCarthy, Inc.

Following a year's internship at Philadelphia General Hospital, he joined the U.S. Navy where he completed his training and certification as a general surgeon. His 27-year naval career afforded him many rewards both as a practicing physician, and later, as a military healthcare policy maker at the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, and at the Pentagon in the Dept. of Defense, Health Affairs. His service also involved travel to duty stations up and down the east coast, to the Mediterranean on a 15-month tour of sea duty aboard the aircraft carrier USS America, and visits to foreign destinations as a medical adjunct to military delegations abroad.

He married a fellow Auburnian, Madeline "Maddie" Crawford, in 1952. According to family lore, the two knew each other as youngsters attending the same neighborhood schools as well as St. Peter's Episcopal Church, but their romance did not begin until both were attending prep schools out of state. Back in Auburn for the holidays, Maddie asked Pete to be her date at the Codfish Ball, an occasion when the girls invited the boys. More dances, football games, concerts and train trips between their two campuses ensued until they married during their sophomore years of college. They subsequently raised a family of six children and remained together until Madeline's death in 2018.

Pete's numerous hobbies reflected the breadth and diversity of his interests beyond his family and career. He collected and reviewed classical music recordings, grew 500 orchid specimens in a greenhouse he built from a kit, crafted wooden Admiralty ship models from scratch, amassed a world-class Bermuda stamp collection (begun as a boy) and co-authored a monograph on WWII postal censorship.

After an absence of many years, Peter and Madeline (accompanied by his sister Sally, her husband, Bill Brink, and other family members) returned to Auburn for several days in June 2013 to revisit beloved settings from their early lives.

Peter is survived by his sister Sally Flynn Brink (Bill); his children: Deborah Flynn-Hanrahan (Tim), Barbara Flynn (Mike Prewitt), Sally Stewart, Peter A. Flynn, Jr. (Tina), E. Paul Flynn II, and Tim Flynn (Vicki); ten grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren, all of whom miss him terribly.

He will be interred (with Madeline beside him) with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery when pandemic conditions permit. Contributions in Peter's memory may be made to The Nature Conservancy or Doctors Without Borders.