Reverend Don Flickinger

1935 - 2024

Reverend Don Flickinger
11/02/1935 - 12/03/2024
Father Flickinger was born at Letterman Army Hospital, San Francisco, to Donald Davis, Flickinger, M.D. and Cecelia Marie Goodman Flickinger. Raised on the Monterey Peninsula of California, he attended Pacific Grove public schools and matriculated to The University of California, Berkeley in 1953.
At CAL he was active in Newman Hall and the University dorm complex of Smyth-Fernwald. He received A.A., B.A. and M.A. degrees in 1955, '57 and '58, respectively, majoring in zoology.
After a year of medical school at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, he entered Saint John's Seminary, Camarillo, California, to prepare for ordination to the priesthood. He was ordained on April 30, 1964, by The Most Rev. A.J. Willinger for the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno.
Father Flickinger received permission to transfer to Santa Clara University, where he served in admissions, campus ministry, executive administration and development. In 1978, he transferred to The University of San Francisco, where he established and directed a program for the recruitment and training of volunteer teachers for the Jesuit missions in Micronesia, especially Ponape Agriculture Trade School.
He next served as chaplain for the Christian Brothers Novitiate at Mont La Salle, returning to San Francisco in 1983 to serve as director of development for the Archdiocese. He also served in the parishes of Sacred Heart and St. Michael, and later at Saint Paul's.
In 1986, and for the next twenty years, Father Flickinger was solely responsible for his mother's care and the management of her affairs. She died in 2007 in her 97th year of life.
During these years, Father also served as chaplain for the Holy Family Sisters, Mission San Jose, and the Franciscan Sisters at Saint Clare's Retreat, Soquel, California. He also assisted in residence at the parishes of Star of the Sea, Santa Cruz, Sacred Heart, Saratoga, and St. Frances Cabrini, San Jose. Father served on the boards of Catholic University of America, Washington D.C., and of both Archbishop Mitty and Presentation High Schools, San Jose.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, at Saint Angela Merici Catholic Church (362 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove, CA. 93950), beginning at 11 a.m. Burial will immediately follow at El Carmelo Cemetery in Pacific Grove.
Memorial contributions are suggested to Catholic Relief Services, P.O. Box 17152, Baltimore, MD 21298-8452; Salesian Missions P.O. Box 96567, Washington, D.C. 20090-6567, and the Lasallian Christian Brothers Foundation, 4401 Redwood Road, Napa, CA 94558