Jim Flanagan RIP

[Marie LaFreniere]

James Flanagan, 76, passed away April 18,2024, in Chicago. He was survived by his wife, Lynne ,and his daughter, Jill and his son, William.
Jim was born in Chelmsford, Essex. England and came to the United States when he was eight years old. From then on he became a lifelong Chicagoan. He attended DePaul Academy and DePaul University. At the university he joined Shat al Arab and made lifelong friends. After graduation he served two years as a conscientious objector cleaning surgery at Peoria’s Methodist Hospital.

After moving back to Chicago, he became a community organizer, founding block clubs to improve the neighborhood of North Beverly.

Years as an educator

He came to St. Clotilde School (84th & Calumet)where he found his love of teaching. He taught math and science for many years to 7th and 8th graders. Moving to North side he taught at St. Benedict grade school. While teaching at both schools, he pioneered the use of computers in education and passed on his knowledge to other teachers in classes.

John Mundt, 10/1946 – 2/2007, seeing Jim’s talents, encouraged Glenview District 34 to hire him as the technology director. Together they created the T.R.E.E., a technologically rich educational environment, where students of varying ability and ages, used problem-based learning with total access to computers. Participated with DePaul University and District 34 in developing the Clinical Model Teacher Training program. After several years there, he finished his career as the technology director of the Maine Township Schools.

Jim was one of the founding members of Illinois Computing Educators (Now IDEA), and Illinois Chief Technology Educators (Now ITEL) He worked with the Illinois Century Network which started with one school providing internet connection to a few schools and grew to a world class network that served close to 8000 educational, governmental and health care constituents.

And then came Beaver Island

When he visited Beaver Island Michigan, he discovered that many of the people there were descended as he was from Arranmore Island, County Donegal, Ireland.. Thus each year after that, he spent as much of the summer as possible on Beaver Island. After retiring, he spent six months each year once his home was built. He was involved with many aspects of the Island - the trails committee, for one , and the Port St. James Association Homeowners Group.

Any donations in his memory should be sent to the House of the Good Shepherd.. A memorial service is to be held in the near future.

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