Former archbishop and St. Thomas board chairman Flynn dies

Archbishop emeritus Harry Flynn sat on stage during the inauguration of President Julie Sullivan in 2013. Flynn died Sunday, Sept. 22. (Morgan Neu/TommieMedia)

The Most Rev. Harry Joseph Flynn, archbishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, died Sunday, Sept. 22 at age 86.

Flynn was archbishop from September 1995 to May 2008 and served as chairman on both the St. Thomas Board of Trustees and the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity.

In 2009, St. Thomas honored him by re-naming Selby residence hall to Flynn Hall.

Flynn was born in New York and ordained in 1960. He later became a priest of the Diocese of Albany, New York.

He first served as a bishop in the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana from 1989 to 1994.

Following the retirement of Archbishop John Roach, Flynn became the seventh archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis in 1995.

When Flynn resigned from the St. Thomas Board of Trustees, he had been under criticism for his handling of clerical sexual abuse cases.

Emily Haugen and Noah Hanlon contributed to this report.