Paul B. Flynn, Who Helped Launch 'USA Today,' Dies at 73

By: E&P Staff Paul B. Flynn, who was part of the team that developed USA Today, died Thursday in Fort Myers, Fla. -- a day after turning 73.

The U.S. Army veteran spent several years as a sports correspondent, sportswriter, editor, and executive at The Patriot Ledger of Quincy, Mass. (where he was born) before starting a long career with the Gannett Co. in 1966.

Flynn worked for Gannett in Rochester, N.Y.; Huntington, W.V.; Binghamton and Nyack, N.Y., and Fort Myers. In 1977, he was named president and publisher of The News-Press in that Florida city. Flynn also became vice president and regional president of Gannett's newspaper division.

USA Today launched in 1982, and Flynn was executive vice president and later president in 1983-1984. Before his retirement in 1990, he served as president and publisher of the Pensacola (Fla.) News-Journal.

Flynn and his wife Aline then returned to New England, where he was executive vice president of a small daily. He also served as public relations director for Strawberry Bank Museum in Portsmouth, N.H. -- where his original Flynn ancestor had moved from Ireland in the 1840s.

And the award-winning Flynn was executive vice president and later president and CEO of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation. Under his leadership, the foundation's endowment almost quadrupled before his June 2007 retirement.