Ralph J. Flynn; California Teachers Assn. Executive Director

Ralph J. Flynn, 60, executive director of the California Teachers Assn. since 1976. A native of Boston, Flynn taught briefly in Connecticut before beginning his career in teachers unions. He served as executive director of the San Francisco Classroom Teachers Assn. in the 1960s and then worked in Washington, heading the Coalition of Public Employees, an alliance that included the National Education Assn. Flynn joined the California Teachers Assn. in 1975 and was named director a year later. Recognized nationally as an expert on public employee unions, Flynn in 1975 wrote the important study “Public Works, Public Workers.” On Saturday in San Mateo of a heart attack.