Patrick J. Flynn (BA '68)

The "central exhilarating focus" of student life for a young Patrick J. Flynn was the St. Aethelwold's Players at St. Jerome's University. Flynn (BA '68) was part of the acting troupe that performed "600-year-old rollicking and ribald pageants and morality plays" to full houses of engineering students back in the 1960s.

These days, Flynn is privy to a different kind of theatre, as a justice of the Superior Court of Ontario. Prior to his appointment in 2002, Flynn was a trial lawyer and senior partner in Flynn and Sorbara, a local firm he founded in 1980. He has also served as a federal prosecutor and a part-time assistant crown attorney for Waterloo Region.

Flynn and his wife Noreen are generous donors to St. Jerome's University, and have established the Joe and Betty Flynn Bursary in memory of Flynn's parents. Flynn proposed to his future wife 40 years ago on the campus bridge that spans Laurel Creek. He has also served on the St. Jerome's University Board of Governors and has provided legal counsel on a wide range of issues.

Flynn has provided volunteer leadership as a founding director of the Waterloo Regional Children's Museum and as the president of the Waterloo Law Association. He received the Waterloo Catholic District School Board's Distinguished Graduate Award in 2006.

Flynn vividly recalls his student days "slogging through the mud" and the cold walk from the end of the bus line at King Street and University Avenue to St. Jerome's University, where he also served a term as president of the student union. He is proud of the University of Waterloo's progress in the past 50 years, saying, "Waterloo is brilliantly coming of age!"

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