James Tyrrell Flood

At the age of 82, longtime Paradise resident James (Jim) Tyrrell Flood passed away from metastatic prostate cancer on Tuesday, June 20th with his family by his side in Palm Springs. Jim is survived by Bonnie, his beloved wife of 51 years, as well as the families of his two adult children: daughter Hilary (Flood) Ervin, husband Michael, sons Brandt (19), Bennett (17) and Reece (15) of Paradise, California – and son Sean Flood, his boys Cutter (10) and Harlan (9) of Heber City, Utah. He is also survived by nephews Michael Mowers, his wife Allison and their daughters Lucy (15), Natalie (13) of Santa Barbara, California, David Mowers of New York City, mother-in-law Shirley Lutz of Paradise, half-sister, Andrea Johnston and half-brother, Arthur Johnston of upstate New York. Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1998, and after much research, Jim chose to go to Loma Linda Hospital for 10 weeks of Proton Beam Therapy. His decision to commute to Loma Linda from Palm Springs was the perfect time for Jim (and Bonnie) to take golf lessons, thus beginning their love of the sport and the desert. They bought their first home in Palm Springs in 1999 becoming official snowbirds. Each year found them spending more and more time in their desert home. Then, of course, Eisenhower Medical Center, the Luci Curci Cancer Center along with Jim’s many doctors, played a large part in pretty much full residency over the past years. So nineteen years and five cancers later, Jim’s decision to stay in the desert made perfect sense. Flood was born in Los Angeles on October 5, 1934 to Teresa Reilly and Joseph James Flood of New York City. His mother returned to the east coast when Jim was two years old, thus leaving his father, paternal grandmother, aunt and uncle, Vivian and James Tyrrell, to raise him. From 3rd through the 9th grade Jim attended Barton School, a small (35 to 40 student) co-educational boarding school in Topanga Canyon. The classes were rigorous and modeled on a European system with a foreign language taught in every grade. There was a nightly study hall where students listened to classical music only while doing their assignments. No other type of music (except folk dancing) was permitted in school. At mealtime a student blowing through a bullhorn summoned them to the dining room. The students milked cows and goats, cultivated an extensive vegetable garden, picked grapes, apples, made juices, split and cut wood to feed the fireplaces and stoves (in some cases the stove would heat the hot water for one of the boys' dormitories). Jim would spend most of his time at Barton School; however, on many weekends he would stay with his aunt and uncle in Los Angeles and Laguna Beach. A passion for classical music blossomed from Barton School as well as from his aunt and uncle. Uncle Jim was an art collector by trade. Young Jim soaked up the knowledge he shared with him about the variety of paintings he had, and he studied the biographies of the many artists in his uncle’s vast art collection. While in college that interest continued with music and art appreciation courses building on those early years under his uncle’s tutelage. After the war ended, his father’s job at Lockheed came to an end. In 1948 they moved to Little Valley (Lassen County) California, a logging town some 20 miles south of Fall River Mills. The first winter there they lived in a tent, had only cold water and an outhouse in back. He went to Fall River High School in McArthur where he was on the football, basketball, baseball and track teams. He graduated in 1951 at the age of 16. He enrolled at Chico State College the following fall and continued to play basketball on the freshman team. After a year he transferred to Santa Barbara Community College where he continued to play basketball and was elected student body president. He transferred to UCSB, where he was a proud member of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and graduated with a BA in Liberal Arts, in January 1956. Following two years in the Navy with a bombing squadron at North Island Naval Air station, which included a six-month deployment on the aircraft carrier Hornet, Jim was employed at System Development Corporation in Santa Monica, a subsidiary of the Rand Corporation. His job as a problem designer consisted of creating hypothetical computer generated war games which were integrated into training programs for the Air Defense Command (a Top Secret clearance was required). Jim spent six weeks during the winter at an air base on Baffin Island where at age 25 he trained seasoned Air Force staff in utilizing the system. (Some of you may have been lucky enough to hear of the shenanigans that went on while flying into that airbase.) Much of the training involved simulated air invasions across the Polar Regions, through Canada and into the United States. Some of these simulated attacks would go on for several days and the North American Air Defense Command evaluated the base performance. Back in California, a chance meeting while on a two-week vacation, Jim was offered a job as an office boy at legendary entertainment public relations firm, Rogers and Cowan. Thus began a long career in media - Jim Mahoney and Associates, ABC-TV in Los Angeles, KGO in San Francisco. In mid-1963 Jim was asked by ABC-TV to return to Los Angeles to represent their new live 2-hour Jerry Lewis Show. At the time it was the biggest contract in television history. After the show ended Mr. Lewis asked Jim to stay on as his Public Relations representative. He added additional clients during his relationship with Jerry Lewis including Pearl Bailey, David Cassidy, Allen Ludden, Betty White, (MTM Productions) Mary Tyler Moore , Shirley Jones, Gary Owens, Ruth Buzzi, director Marty Pasetta, Jose Feliciano, Kentucky Fried Chicken, TV production companies and numerous other clients. He assisted with publicity and booking for the first (1967) Muscular Dystrophy telethon airing on two television stations in the New York City area. The telethon raised just over $1.2 million dollars. In addition, Jim was associate producer on the first MDA telethon originating from Las Vegas. Jim met his future wife at an ABC-TV party in 1965. They discovered they both liked skiing, went to Mammoth where Jim broke his ankle. Bonnie nursed him through that and cooked for him. They were married in the Wayfarers Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes on March 25, 1966; naturally, they had a skiing honeymoon in Aspen, Colorado. They celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2016 surrounded by family and friends. In the early 1970’s Jim and his family moved to Paradise in Northern California. After four years as a stockbroker, he was successful in creating and implementing a nationwide public education campaign on behalf of the Medic Alert Foundation. A multitude of television public service spots featuring well-known celebrities, plus establishing National Medic Alert weeks throughout the Carter and Reagan administrations helped elevate the visibility of Medic Alert. The Floods have been Supporting Members of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival since 1973. Jim shared his passion for the theater with his children and grandsons with numerous trips to Ashland, San Francisco and New York City. Fly-fishing was a hobby that took Jim to beautiful streams throughout many western states; Fall River was a particular favorite. He relished the opportunity to share that love with Sean and his grandsons with annual trips to the area staying at Spinner Falls Lodge or, if with the Flood tribe, at one of the Circle 7 houses. With Lake Oroville only 4 miles from their house in Paradise, house boating and water skiing with family and friends was the summer activity of choice. Jim would sometimes commute to his office from the houseboat often anchored at a favorite spot on the West Branch via ski boat to the Lime Saddle dock. Once Hilary and Sean left Paradise, they no longer had anyone to hold the water ski-flag, hence their decision to move on to other summer adventures. Winters, of course, meant ski trips to Mammoth and Mt. Bachelor with the usual Paradise/Chico crew. As a side note, Jim and Bonnie held meetings with fellow parents and students at their KRIJ offices to start the Paradise High Ski Team. Jim served on the California staff for the 1976 Carter/Mondale Presidential campaign. He produced a show featuring “The Fifth Dimension” for the California delegation at the Washington Hilton. Jim and Bonnie attended the 1977 Inauguration as well as some of the Inaugural Balls. In the early 1980’s Jim earned an M.A. degree in Communications from California State University, Chico. Following his communications passion, and after a lengthy application process with the FCC, he and Bonnie were awarded a construction permit to build and operate an FM station for the Paradise/Chico area. Locating a tower and transmitting site, plus studio construction, took years. In October 1983 the station, KRIJ, went on the air as the first FM country music station in the North Valley. Jim also taught several Communications classes at Chico State while operating KRIJ. In 1988 they accepted an offer to sell the radio station. In the early 1990’s, Jim was recruited to take over as interim manager of public broadcasting station KIXE-TV in Redding, California, which he did for one year. Traveling, spending time with family and volunteer endeavors occupied his retirement. Living in both Santa Barbara and San Francisco led to Jim’s love of sailing. After selling KRIJ he joined Club Nautique in Sausalito, beginning a year of sailing classes for both of them. He earned his certification to skipper up to 50’ boats (Bonnie up to 35’ boats) which led to many trips to the British Virgin Islands as well as the Westward and Leeward Islands. Over a period of 15 years family and friends joined in their sailing adventures. Scuba diving and windsurfing were a big part of their Caribbean experience. Jim and Bonnie traveled extensively during their 51 years. Most memorable were Special Expedition trips whale watching in Baja California; the Galapagos Islands; a three week trip to South Africa flying in 2 six passenger Cessnas (he in one plane & Bonnie in the other) where they visited Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe - living in small tents where baboons frolicked on the tent tops and lions roared close by at night; and three weeks cruising the Greek islands. Special Expeditions was a perfect match for them traveling in small ships with as few as 35 passengers to the largest around 100 passengers. They also loved traveling on their own, with Jim functioning as the consummate planner. His itineraries are legendary: touring for three weeks in Europe driving a rented VW beetle exploring Italy and France; five weeks in Alaska in their 8 foot camper; other vacations to Great Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, China and Mexico. In Northern California Jim was an early supporter of the Paradise Auditorium & Community Center, a founder of the Paradise Community Foundation, a board member of the Private Industry Council, member of the North Valley Community Foundation, as well as participating in other community projects. Certainly an activist for his community, he was most proud of founding “Swing Fore a Cure,” a non-profit charitable foundation under the banner of the North Valley Community Foundation, dedicated to creating awareness of the benefits of early cancer detection through media exposure. His vision of an annual golf tournament held at Butte Creek Country Club with Debbie Maderos as co-chair each year from 2007 thru 2012 helped spread the message. Another passion of Jim’s while in the desert was volunteering as a docent at the Palm Springs Air Museum. He was delighted to share his knowledge of Naval history with his friends, museum guests and especially proud to introduce his grandsons to the Air Museum and his experiences whenever they visited. The Air Museum hosts 59 flyable and static planes inside four hangars with more on the tarmac. Jim volunteered in the Pacific (Navy) Hangar which includes exhibits and aircraft used during World War II - the Grumman “cats” (F4F Wildcat, F6F Hellcat, F7F Tigercat, F8F Bearcat), Avenger, Corsair, Dauntless and Invader are all on display. Jim was a supporter of The Living Desert and the McCallum Theater as well. Above all else Jim embraced life, read voraciously, traveled the world, and perhaps most of all, spent time with his wife, children and grandsons - especially if it involved skiing, sailing, fishing, camping or golfing. He also gave generously of his time to his community. His gracious spirit, love of laughter and storytelling was contagious. Jim will be fondly remembered by legions of his friends, as well as his children's friends, who each seem to have had a real connection with him. Education is something that Jim and Bonnie feel very strongly about; as Jim was a proud U.S. Navy Veteran. Please consider a donation in memory of Jim to the Palm Springs Air Museum where he was a docent in the Pacific Hanger. Donations can be on line: www.palmspringsairmuseum.org and complete the donation form or mailed to: Palm Springs Air Museum, 745 N. Gene Autry Trail, Palm Springs CA 92262 – Attn: Carol In honor of Jim’s wishes, a Celebration of Life is planned for June 2018 in Northern California. Arrangements entrusted to Trident Society - Rancho Mirage, Rancho Mirage, CA