Terence Flynn

1927 - 2019

Terence Michael Flynn

The truly great never tell you how great they are, but when they are gone they leave an immeasurable hole in the lives of everyone they touched. Terence Michael Flynn was one of these.
He died on July 8th, in Larkspur, three weeks shy of his 92nd birthday. His extraordinarily valiant and vibrant life force led those who knew him to expect he would live forever.
He made of his life a grand and purposeful adventure. Successful art publisher, humanitarian, world traveler, compassionate friend and inspiration to countless people, an intriguing and enigmatic eccentric, he was intellectually curious, complex and eager for experience up until the very end.
Terence was born in 1927 into a large, extended Irish Catholic family (parents John Mervin and Claire Connor Flynn, sister Sheila Flynn Devine), in the San Fernando Valley, at that time still an open farmland of citrus groves and fruit orchards. By age 8 his imaginative entrepreneurial gifts were already in evidence as he organized and sold pony rides to neighborhood children, raised pigs and turkeys, and purchased cans of soda for a nickel which he sold for a dime at local festivities. As a young teenager, on a trip south of the border in the 1940s that took him to Guatemala, he became so enamored of parrots that he tried to smuggle one back into this country. Illegal! A brief experience in a Mexican jail failed to dampen his spirits; he relished risk. Annapolis Naval Academy by age 17, then on to Stanford and NYU, graduating with two degrees, a JD and a Master of Tax Law. Six months practicing law did not prove a match for his temperament.
In the early 1950s he started a business making and selling ant farms but the ants, frequently dying or escaping en route to customers, proved too troublesome. He embarked, instead, on his first venture into publishing. While living in Spain, dramatic bullfight posters had caught his eye and he began to import them to the U.S. with considerable success. This led to the creation of Portal Publications in 1954. Under his innovative and energetic leadership Portal became the largest company of its kind in the world, publishing prints, posters, cards and calendars, popularly priced to appeal to millions all over the globe. Due to Terence's ability to bring out the best in everybody, the large community of employees came to feel like a family. His delight in working with artists and images was catching, and all involved joined in his goal to add pleasure to people's lives by making art available to whomever sought it out. He enjoyed the challenge of achieving financial success, but not so he could live in luxury. His primary satisfaction was in giving to others, and his habits remained simple and unassuming.
Terence was a devoted Catholic who claimed never to have missed a weekly service. Wherever he was in the world, he managed to find a church. On many trips to Poland, he acted as a private Catholic emissary. But some of his most effective benevolent work was with The Bay Area Council of Soviet Jewry in the 1980s, in its attempt to aid Jewish refuseniks desperate to escape oppression in the Soviet Union. He made some 15 trips to that country. He also traveled extensively in the Middle East, gathering medical supplies for communities in need. Tireless work on behalf of Las Trampas in Lafayette, a philanthropic organization benefiting developmentally disabled adults, bore fruit in helping many, including his own daughter, Becky.
Terence's travels, even in his late 80s and into his 90s, included trips to Europe and England, to Peru, Bolivia, Bhutan, Mongolia (sleeping in a yurt in the middle of winter), China, Kashmir, India, North Korea, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, often going, over his lifetime, where others feared to tread. Tame, polished tours were not for him; he chose the freedom of independent movement. Wherever he went, he returned with piles of thoughtful, often exotic, gifts for family and friends, sharing the flavor of his far-flung experiences.
A voracious reader, mainly of history and politics (he'd wished to live long enough to see Trump out of The White House) Terence was rarely without a book, magazine or newspaper. Not one to sit around and wring his hands over whatever he read, he was a man of action, disciplined and intent on solving problems, an engaged and deeply informed citizen.
Perhaps Terence's most memorable trait was his keen desire to connect with others, from every walk of life. Even when he was involved in his own fascinating pursuits, when he was with you his emphasis and focus were on you alone. He wanted to know everything about you; your dreams, your family, your story. He asked endless questions and remembered the answers. He was full of fun and spread this to others. Though he'd experienced his share of tragedies and disappointment, he always remained plucky and optimistic and could continuously be heard singing and humming. If you were having a rough time, he encouraged you to move forward, not with superficial clichés but with genuine care about your struggles.
Terence was not a saint and would have been the first to tell you that. He was a contrarian who often preferred the company of rascals over the righteous.
He endlessly gave and forgave, recognizing the divine light in everyone. There was no one like him.
He met and married, in 1953, a fellow Stanford graduate, Eunice Anne Eichelberger, with whom he had four children and started Portal. He married a second time in 1966, to Barbara Lee (Payne) Prince, whose love and companionship he treasured for 50 years until her death in 2016. Terence leaves behind his children: Rebecca C. Flynn, Devon B. Flynn (Karen), Douglas E. Flynn and Pamela Prince (Richard Friedlander): a daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Prince: three grandchildren: Meghan Flynnperrault, Devon A. Flynnperrault and Nicholas McGlibery. Nieces and nephews and many loving friends will surely miss him and will, no doubt, tell colorful stories about him for years to come.
Donations in his name are welcomed and can be made to RES SUCCESS (checks made out to RES Pleasant Hill), 490 Golf Club Rd., Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 and/or to Las Trampas, P.O. Box 515, Lafayette, CA 94549.