Theresa Ann Flynn
March 19, 1961-March 23, 2018
Fayetteville, New York

Theresa Ann Flynn died on March 23, 2018, surrounded by family at her home in DeWitt, NY, after a long battle with ALS. She was 57.

Terry was born on March 19, 1961, in West Lafayette, IN. She spent her childhood in Hyde Park, NY; Evanston, IL; and Baltimore, MD; before moving with her family to Palo Alto, CA as an adolescent in 1974. She attended St. Francis High School in Mountain View, CA. Terry met Ken Wagner in 1980, while they were visiting students at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland; they married in Ithaca, NY, in 1988. Their family lived in DeWitt, a suburb of Syracuse, NY, for the past three decades.

Terry received a BA (psychology) from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1983. She worked as a social worker at Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Peninsula in Belmont, CA, before leaving to attend graduate school in 1984. She earned an MS (industrial and labor relations) from the ILR School at Cornell University in 1989, and an executive master’s degree (public administration) from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 2012.

Terry created a successful 25-year career in organizational development that was at once consequential for the organizations she guided and personally transformative for the individuals she worked with. Terry possessed a singular blend of uncommon intelligence, discerning insight and perspective, and exceptional interpersonal and communication skills; she was also really funny. Her observations and analyses were often unique as she looked at things from angles nobody but she knew existed. Terry parlayed these gifts with her rigorous academic training and practical problem-solving work as a graduate student into a career as a consultant for a number of companies, eventually including non-profit organizations such as Catholic Charities of Upstate NY.

The passion Terry held for her work was surpassed only by her love of family and friends. She provided the connective tissue so that her loved ones felt cherished, respected, appreciated, and empowered. The joys and successes of others were fundamental concerns to her. This generous approach to life, and the organic relationship between her life and work philosophies, made Terry a favorite of many. To know Terry was to love her.

Terry is survived by her husband, Kenneth Wagner; her children: William, Megan, and Evan Wagner-Flynn; her parents Michael and Patricia Flynn of Palo Alto, CA; her siblings, Frank Flynn (Kirsten) and Kathleen Flynn (Scott Wakefield) of Palo Alto, CA; and Margaret Flynn (Donald Evans) of Oak Park, IL; as well as five nephews and a niece.

Tags: business, public service