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Memorial Tributes, Volume 14
PATRICK F. FLYNN
1937–2008
Elected in 1995
”For advances in diesel engine design utilizing science-based methodology.”
BY RODICA A. BARANESCU AND COLLEAGUES AT CUMMINS, INC.
PATRICK FRANCIS FLYNN, one of the nation’s foremost engine combustion experts, died on August 19, 2008, at the age of 70.
Born in Kingsley, Iowa, on November 14, 1937, he was the oldest of five children, growing up in Minnesota, where his family operated a farm. With a humble, strong work ethic firmly rooted, he went to college at the University of Minnesota (where he had plumbing for the first time). He was notoriously known for not having to study in college and graduated with a B.S. in agricultural engineering (cum laude) from the university in 1959.
After graduation he joined the John Deere Company in East Moline, Illinois, as a design engineer. From there he moved on to the International Harvester Company, where he was a design and project engineer. It was there where he first developed a special interest in engine combustion and co-authored his first papers for the Society of Automotive Engineers, relating to diesel engine simulation and testing. While at International Harvester Company, Pat also worked on his M.S. degree in agricultural engineering, which he obtained in 1965 from the University of Minnesota.
