Flynn, Thomas G.

Thomas G. Flynn, 67, a press secretary to former San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto and later a senior vice president for public relations at Bechtel Corp., died Sunday November 21, 2004 of congestive heart failure at a hospital in Dixon, Calif. A former journalist who reported on the Vietnam War for the Oakland Tribune, Flynn was on a congressional staff before joining Alioto's staff. He later served as executive secretary of San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission.

Flynn joined Bechtel as assistant manager of public relations in 1976. After an accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in March 1979, he was transferred to Pennsylvania to serve as a consultant to General Public Utilities Nuclear Corp., owner of Three Mile Island, to help develop new public relations programming and staff. Bechtel had been brought in by General Public Utilities to help clean up damaged Unit 2, which had been designed and built by Babcock & Wilcox.

Flynn returned to San Francisco in 1980."He became an important member of a senior communications team for the nuclear industry dealing with the communications challenges of keeping nuclear power viable," said Larry Thomas of Irvine Co., who worked with Flynn at Bechtel. "He was ... excellent at press relations, a superb writer and a fearless advocate for those who employed him."