151 Facts About Raymond Flynn

Raymond Leo Flynn was born on July 22,1939 and is an American politician and diplomat who served as the mayor of Boston, Massachusetts, from 1984 until 1993.

Raymond Flynn served as United States Ambassador to the Holy See from 1993 to 1997.

Raymond Flynn began his political career as a Democratic member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1971 to 1979, representing the South Boston neighborhood during the turbulent Boston desegregation busing crisis of the early 1970s.

Raymond Flynn served on the Boston City Council from 1978 to 1984.

Raymond Flynn was elected mayor of Boston in 1983 and took office in 1984.

In 1990, Raymond Flynn saw strong criticism from Black leaders over the Boston Police Department's handling of the investigation into the murder of Carol Stuart.

Raymond Flynn successfully fought to enact rent control laws and strong tenants' rights laws.

Raymond Flynn served as president of the United States Conference of Mayors from 1991 to 1992.

Raymond Flynn resigned as mayor in 1993 in order to accept an appointment by President Bill Clinton as ambassador to the Holy See.

Raymond Flynn expanded the position's mission to involve participation in addressing problem areas around the world.

In 1998, Raymond Flynn unsuccessfully ran for the United States House of Representatives.

Raymond Flynn later served as president of Catholic Alliance, a nonpartisan Catholic advocacy group.

Raymond Flynn grew up in South Boston, where he has spent most of his life living.

Raymond Flynn's father was a union longshoreman, and his mother was a cleaning lady.

Raymond Flynn grew up a member of the Gate of Heaven Parish in South Boston.

Raymond Flynn was a three-sport star athlete at South Boston High School.

Raymond Flynn was an All-American college basketball player at Providence College, and during his senior year was selected as the "most valuable player" in the 1963 National Invitation Tournament.

Later in life, while a Boston city councilor, Raymond Flynn would receive a master's degree in education from Harvard University in 1981.

Raymond Flynn enlisted in the United States Army and was stationed at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Raymond Flynn worked as a personal family assistant to Vice President Hubert Humphrey during Humphrey's campaign in the 1968 presidential election.

Raymond Flynn was pro-trade unions, for affordable housing and tenants rights, opposed to redlining, opposed to expansion at Logan Airport, and opposed cutting welfare programs.

Raymond Flynn argued that desegregation busing would pit poor Black and poor White families against one another within a second-tier school system, all while wealthy suburbanites sent their students to well-funded schools.

Raymond Flynn refused to join the militant anti-busers, Louise Day Hicks and William Bulger when they released a statement of resistance that was seen as having racist overtones.

Raymond Flynn urged against violent actions that were being taken by some in protest of busing.

Raymond Flynn's car was firebombed, and his family received death threats through telephone calls.

In 1974, Raymond Flynn filed legislation to repeal a state law which required that children attend school.

Raymond Flynn was a supporter of providing more state funding to special needs students in schools.

Raymond Flynn co-authored a bill to end government funding of abortions covered by Medicaid.

In March 1975, Raymond Flynn announced himself as a candidate for the 1975 Boston mayoral election.

Raymond Flynn was elected to the Boston City Council in November 1977.

In 1981, Raymond Flynn was the top vote-getter by a large margin.

Drier would describe Raymond Flynn as having been an "18-hour-a-day workaholic", and the "hardest working City Councilor".

Raymond Flynn had a reputation for regularly attending public meetings.

Raymond Flynn was viewed as an ally of trade unions, welfare recipients, and working women.

Raymond Flynn regularly proposed tenants' rights ordinances on the Boston City Council, which were defeated.

Raymond Flynn believed that his city council colleagues were influenced by sizable donations from the real estate lobby, especially faulting the Greater Boston Real Estate Board.

Raymond Flynn supported the idea of implementing linkage fees that would require those developing large projects to provide a percentage of money to affordable housing.

Raymond Flynn directed his attention to matters such as aircraft noise pollution and homelessness.

Raymond Flynn's campaign received no significant financial support from major sectors of the city's business community.

Raymond Flynn outright refused to accept campaign donations from developers with projects pending before city agencies, or lawyers of such developers.

Raymond Flynn's campaign spent roughly $400,000, while King's spent less than $350,000.

Dudley Clendinen wrote that Raymond Flynn had worked to establish himself as a champion of the poor and elderly and to appeal across ethnic lines to ethnic minority voters.

Raymond Flynn was viewed as an underdog at the start of his campaign, due to a lack of funding, a political organization, or connections to the business or media establishments.

Raymond Flynn served as mayor from his inauguration on January 2,1984 until his resignation on July 12,1993.

Raymond Flynn was reelected mayor in 1987 and 1991, winning more than two-thirds of the vote each time.

In 1987, Raymond Flynn carried every ward of the city except for in his native South Boston.

Raymond Flynn centered his candidacy on ties to the city's neighborhoods and his successes in balancing the city's budget.

Raymond Flynn was an outspoken critic of the cuts that President Ronald Reagan championed making to federal revenue sharing, urban development grants, and housing and job assistance programs.

Raymond Flynn considered running in the 1990 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, but, due to police controversies, his struggling relationship with the minority community, and his anti-abortion stance, he ruled out a run.

Raymond Flynn visited South Africa several times to see anti-apartheid figure Nelson Mandela when he was in prison.

In June 1990, four months after Mandela's release from prison, Raymond Flynn welcomed him to Boston on a trip Mandela took visiting many cities in the United States.

Ahead of the 1992 United States presidential election, there was some talk about whether Raymond Flynn could be a prospective vice presidential running mate on a Democratic ticket.

In February 1992, Raymond Flynn unsuccessfully urged New York Governor Mario Cuomo to run in the presidential election.

Raymond Flynn physically campaigned on Clinton's behalf in roughly half of the nation's states.

In collaboration with community activists, Raymond Flynn raised a more than year-long campaign to pressure banks to change their practices.

Raymond Flynn announced a plan to issue a regular city-sponsored "report card" on bank practices.

Raymond Flynn adopted a "linked deposit" policy to have the city then withdraw funds from banks that received poor track records on these "report cards" to expand its deposits in banks which worked to meet the needs of the city's neighborhoods.

When Raymond Flynn took office, the city had a $40 million deficit.

Raymond Flynn was able to balance the city's budget each year he was in office and improved the fiscal controls of the city.

Raymond Flynn was able to improve the city's bond rating each year he was in office.

Bush, Raymond Flynn often blamed shortcomings of the city government on their administrations for what he claimed were insufficient federal funds coming into the city's coffers.

Additionally, during the Massachusetts governorship of Republican Bill Weld, Raymond Flynn often faulted shortcomings of the city government on what he claimed was insufficient state funding, blaming Governor Weld but avoiding blaming the Democratic majorities in both chambers of the Massachusetts State Legislature.

Raymond Flynn needed the help of the city's business community to convince the state.

Raymond Flynn heeded the advice of this advisory committee, and "opened the books" on the city's fiscal situation, something that his immediate predecessor, Kevin White, had refused to do himself.

Raymond Flynn met across the state with individuals and groups such as local officials, business groups, and trade unions in order to persuade them to lobby their own legislators to support the state legislation he was seeking.

Raymond Flynn made the argument that Boston's economic and fiscal health was critical to that of all of Massachusetts.

Raymond Flynn characterized Boston as being a generator of jobs and state sales tax revenue, as well as the home to institutions which benefited the entire state.

In 1984, the initial revenue package that Raymond Flynn championed was defeated in the state legislature.

In 1985, Raymond Flynn proposed and lobbied for a revised revenue package.

Raymond Flynn created the "Boston jobs" program, requiring that developers that obtained city permits to hire Boston residents for half of all their construction jobs, minorities for one quarter of all their construction jobs, and women for one-tenth of all their construction jobs.

When Boston hotel owners and Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union Local 26 were in conflict, and looked headed towards a long and tense strike in 1985, Raymond Flynn had his police chief privately inform hotel owners that they could not expect to rely the Boston Police Department to protect strikebreakers or preserve order outside and within hotel establishments.

When Raymond Flynn traveled to southwestern Virginia to support coal mining households during the Pittston Coal strike against the Pittston Coal Group, he learned from United Mine Workers President Richard Trumka that William Craig, a member of Pittston's board, was vice chairman of Shawmut Bank, the city of Boston's second largest lender.

In 1989, Raymond Flynn spearheaded the creation of a policy which requires that new commercial developments in the city's downtown provide childcare services on-site or otherwise fund resources for off-site childcare spaces.

In July 1991, Raymond Flynn won a fight to turn Boston School Committee from an elected school board to one whose members are appointed by the mayor.

Raymond Flynn conceded that it had disenfranchised the input of voters in shaping the school board, and had upset many communities of color in the city.

Raymond Flynn conceded that the appointed school board had failed in terms of accountability, remarking in 1993,.

In 1993, Raymond Flynn wrote an open letter to those seeking to run in the 1993 Boston mayoral election to succeed him which pronounced his regret for having changed the city's school board to an appointed board, and which expressed his preference for reverting it back to an elected one.

In 1985, Raymond Flynn appointed Francis Roache as the city's police commissioner.

In 1990, Raymond Flynn received strong criticism from Black leaders over the city police's handling of the investigation into the murder of Carol Stuart, including the arrest and intensive search of William Bennett.

Raymond Flynn had instructed for a citywide manhunt for murderer after the killing.

Raymond Flynn's apology was directly addressed to Bennett as well as Alan Swanson, both of whom she acknowledged had been wrongly treated as suspects.

Raymond Flynn appointed William Bratton to serve as the city's new police commissioner.

Weeks before the 1987 mayoral election, Raymond Flynn publicized a plan to desegregate all-white housing developments of the Boston Housing Authority located in South Boston.

Raymond Flynn took office amid a period of urban flight by the city's middle class.

When Raymond Flynn took office, downtown real estate developers were highly worried by his populist agenda.

Raymond Flynn opted not to socialize with real estate developers, and refused to take political contributions from developers that had projects being considered by the city government.

When Raymond Flynn assumed office, the federal government was greatly decreasing federal funding for urban housing, job training, and economic development programs.

Raymond Flynn worked to use public-private partnerships as well as government regulatory tools of the private sector such as zoning and rent control.

Raymond Flynn was successful in his fight to implement rent control laws in the city.

Raymond Flynn focused on addressing the quality of life in neighborhoods, as well as on addressing gentrification.

The Raymond Flynn administration funded tenant groups, who organized against bad landlords.

In 1986, Raymond Flynn worked successfully with tenant activists to get the Boston City Council to pass a ban on developers evicting tenants in order to clear apartment buildings for condominium conversions.

Raymond Flynn got the City Council to put in place rent control on projects in the city subsidized by United States Department of Housing and Urban Development if the owners exercised the option to prepay their federally subsidized mortgages.

Raymond Flynn championed inclusionary housing policies that would require developers of market-rate housing to provide units for moderate and low-income residents.

The Raymond Flynn administration provided neighborhood groups significant influence in planning and development decisions, as well as other matters.

In 1993, Raymond Flynn resigned during his third term as mayor when he was appointed by Clinton to serve as United States Ambassador to the Holy See.

Raymond Flynn was nominated in March 1993, and announced he would be resigning as mayor.

Raymond Flynn met with President Clinton and United States State Department officials to better define what his role would be as ambassador.

However, their relationship was noted to have become somewhat terser during the period in which Raymond Flynn was preparing to hand over the office to Menino.

One cause for their rift was that, after Menino had promised he would appoint 100 new police officers when he took office, Raymond Flynn beat him to the chase and did so himself, which angered Menino.

When Raymond Flynn resigned on July 12,1993, Menino became acting mayor.

Raymond Flynn served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Holy See from September 2,1993, through September 20,1997.

Raymond Flynn was the first member of the Democratic Party to hold this post.

Raymond Flynn was appointed on July 1,1993, and presented his credentials on September 2,1993.

Clinton had Raymond Flynn expand the role of the post's mission.

Raymond Flynn helped lead relief efforts related to an earthquake in India, and was involved in humanitarian aid efforts to nations such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haiti, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Uganda.

Raymond Flynn was involved in efforts to broker the Good Friday Agreement.

Raymond Flynn collaborated with the Holy See on efforts to resolve problems in various areas of the world.

Raymond Flynn played a key role in brokering an agreement to start a formal process to have Israel and the Holy See establish formal relations with each other.

At the time he accepted the position of ambassador, Raymond Flynn made it known that he intended to eventually return to politics, likely running for another public office.

However, Raymond Flynn announced in April 1994 that he would not run in the 1994 gubernatorial election.

In February 1996, Raymond Flynn plead to having misused campaign funds during his tenure as mayor and agreed to repay $12,500 in funds to his campaign committee.

The state of Massachusetts' attorney general was considering bringing a civil lawsuit against Raymond Flynn regarding these funds.

In early 1997, eying leaving his post, Raymond Flynn made an effort to become a university athletic director, reaching out to Boston-area universities such as Northeastern University.

In early September 1997, Raymond Flynn shared his intent to run for governor of Massachusetts in 1998.

Two weeks later, Raymond Flynn announced his intent to resign his post as ambassador.

On October 3,1997, The Boston Globe published an article which both accused Raymond Flynn of having been a sub-par diplomat as ambassador and of having had a longtime drinking problem.

The article included a reporter's claim to have, firsthand, witnessed Raymond Flynn walking around Boston while seemingly drunk while visiting the city on break from his ambassadorial duties on August 6,1997.

Raymond Flynn defended himself in an interviewed aired by 60 Minutes in April 1998.

Raymond Flynn made public in January 1998 his intent to later that year launch his candidacy.

Raymond Flynn was the only anti-abortion candidate of the ten running in the primary, and his campaign advertising utilized photos of him with Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa.

Raymond Flynn was endorsed by the local chapters of the International Longshoremen's Association and Iron Workers unions.

Raymond Flynn had been regarded as an early front-runner in the primary, and private and public opinion polls had shown him to be leading.

The triple-decker houses once bulging with large ethnic families are now occupied by yuppies for whom the name Raymond Flynn is just a distant memory.

In 2001, for several weeks Raymond Flynn openly explored a possible run in that year's special election to succeed Joe Moakley as the congressman from Massachusetts's 9th congressional district.

However, in mid-June 2001, Raymond Flynn ruled out such a run and threw his support behind a potential candidacy by State Senator Stephen Lynch, who ultimately ran and won the election.

In 2004, Raymond Flynn unsuccessfully pursued litigation to reverse the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that had, earlier that year, legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.

In 2010, Raymond Flynn again crossed party lines to vote for the successful candidacy of Republican nominee Scott Brown for the United States Senate.

In 2012, Raymond Flynn appeared in television ads supporting Brown for reelection.

Raymond Flynn voiced support for Mitt Romney, that year's Republican nominee for president.

Raymond Flynn has continued to comment on United States relations with the Holy See.

Raymond Flynn opined that Kennedy's pro-choice abortion stance would make her unbefitting to serve as ambassador to the Holy See.

Raymond Flynn involved himself in media after concluding his career in public office.

In February 2017, Raymond Flynn became a columnist for the Boston Herald.

In 1999, Raymond Flynn became president of Catholic Alliance, a nonpartisan Catholic advocacy group.

Raymond Flynn became president of another Catholic political advocacy organization, Your Catholic Voice.

Raymond Flynn later started Catholic Citizenship, serving as its national chairman.

Raymond Flynn cited the organization as arising from conversations he had with a figure in national Catholic activism that affirmed in Flynn the importance of his message relating to adhering to Catholic teachings above partisan political concerns.

In 2013, Raymond Flynn voiced his public agreement with the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council's position in its lawsuit against a developer and the city.

In 2024, Raymond Flynn endorsed Erin Murphy's unsuccessful campaign in the Democratic primary for clerk of the Suffolk Supreme Judicial Court.

Raymond Flynn is married to Catherine, who often goes by "Kathy".

In November 2017, son Edward M Flynn was elected to the Boston City Council.

Raymond Flynn was an avid runner who made headlines in 1984 when he ran in the Boston Marathon and the New York City Marathon.

In March 2007, Raymond Flynn was grand marshal of the 246th New York St Patrick's Day Parade.

In May 2007, Raymond Flynn joined the College of Fellows of the Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology in Berkeley, California, who awarded him the honorary degree Doctor of Humane Letters.

In September 2008, Raymond Flynn was hospitalized after he collapsed at a Boston-area speaking engagement.

In March 2011, Raymond Flynn's home was broken into; among the valuables taken were rosary beads blessed by Pope John Paul II and letters from influential world figures.

In December 2021, Raymond Flynn was hospitalized after again falling, this time having broken a bone in his neck.

However, motivated by his continued opposition to same-sex marriage, shortly after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that in 2004 that same-sex marriage was a protected right in Massachusetts, Raymond Flynn attempted litigation to see their ruling overturned.

Raymond Flynn opposed decreases initiated during the Reagan presidency to federal revenue sharing with cities.

Raymond Flynn has received the B'nai B'rith International Humanitarian Award, Martin Luther King Jr.