CALVIN MAURICE FLINN March 20, 1918 - December 28, 1997 Admitted to the Maryland Bar 1947 Law Practice 1947 - 1982

In 1947, the Taft-Hartley Act was enacted; Harry S. Truman was President of the United States and our Country had no Vice President; Meet the Press debuted on NBC; the microwave oven was invented; Captain Chuck Yeager, USAF broke the sound barrier; the US population was 144,126,071; the cost of a first-class stamp was still $.03; Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers; the University of Notre Dame was the National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Champion and Henry Ford passed away.

In 1947, the population of Charles County, Maryland was 23,415 and on June 10, 1947, in Annapolis, Maryland Calvin Maurice Flinn signed his name to page 578 of the Maryland Court of Appeals' Test Book certifying to his admission to the practice of law before all Courts in the State of Maryland.

Calvin Maurice Flinn was born and raised in Danville, Virginia and became the third Partner of Mudd & Mudd Attorneys. After obtaining his undergraduate degree from Hampden-Sidney College and his LLB Degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, Mr. Flinn began the private practice of law in 1947 for the venerable Baltimore law firm of Semmes, Bowen and Semmes. Before joining Francis DeSales Mudd in partnership under the name of Mudd & Mudd Attorneys in 1950 he was also admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, bringing with him a cosmopolitan background new to rural Charles County.

Mr. Flinn quickly forged a reputation as a skillful advocate and wise counselor and was frequently in demand in high profile criminal matters of his time. He used his legal ability and balanced judgment not only in the effective representation of his clients but in his many civic, social and personal pursuits.

In 1956 the Law Office of Mudd & Mudd Attorneys moved from its quarters above Stumble Inn to the newly constructed Idamont Building on La Grange Avenue which Messers Flinn and Mudd constructed to serve their ever growing client base. The firm's clients benefited over the next decade by Mudd & Mudd's employment of associates John C. Hancock, Frank G. Perrin, Franklin B. Olmsted, Lee F. Holdmann, M. Wayne Munday, Thomas F. Mudd, John F. Mudd and F. George Heinze. Drawing upon the experience and mentoring provided by attorneys Flinn and Mudd, associates Hancock, Perrin, Olmsted and Holdmann each left their employment with Mudd & Mudd Attorneys to establish highly successful careers in specialty fields: John C. Hancock, State's Attorney for Charles County for more than a decade; Frank G. Perrin, a sole general practitioner while also serving in the Maryland House of Delegates; Franklin B. Olmsted, now senior member of the La Plata father-son partnership of Olmsted and Olmsted; and Lee F. Holdmann, a successful and respected estate planning specialist. Associates M. Wayne Munday, Thomas F. Mudd, John F. Mudd and F. George Heinze developed their positions to partnership status.

Mr. Flinn's contributions to his community outside of the practice of law were extensive. Prior to commencing his professional career, he was a United States Navy pilot serving in the Pacific theater and was an intelligence officer aboard the U.S.S. Midway. Locally he served as President of the Wicomico Hunt and Hawthorne Country Clubs, maintained a membership with the Maryland Club in Baltimore and was long an active member of the Virginia Society of the Society of the Cincinnati. In addition he served on the Board of Directors of the Charles County Chamber of Commerce, was President of the Indian Head Businessmen's Association and Chairman of the Charles County Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Professionally he was a Member of the Charles County Bar where he served as its President in its early years, a Member of the Maryland Bar Association where he served as Vice President and on the Board of Governors and was a Member of the American Bar Association.

Maurice Flinn was a gentleman to the core and not surprisingly he carried this quality to the Courtroom where his courtly manner often swayed both court and jury to favorable results for his clients. The office lore of Mudd & Mudd and its successors relates a trial conducted in the temporary Courtroom in Christ Church Hall before the late Judge James C. Mitchell during the tenure of Judge Mitchell's bailiff, Louie Cundrup.

Sometime during the closing arguments of counsel near the end of an arduous day, Mr. Cundrup fell asleep while seated precariously on the bailiff's chair near the jury box. Judge Mitchell noticed that before falling asleep, Louie had apparently tilted his chair back so as to rest on two legs. Fearing that Louie might somehow be startled and fall from his chair, Judge Mitchell asked Mr. Flinn and opposing counsel to approach the bench where he asked Mr. Flinn if he would gently awaken the bailiff. Drawing on his good Virginia breading, Mr. Flinn informed Judge Mitchell that he had the greatest respect for the Court and that to the best of his knowledge he had always obeyed Court Orders but that he was respectfully refusing to obey the current request because he thought it more appropriate for opposing counsel to be given the chore of awakening Mr. Cundrup as it was opposing counsel's closing jury argument which had put Mr. Cundrup to sleep.

Mr. Flinn retired to his native Virginia in 1982. In retirement he took an active part in the University of Virginia Law School Alumni Association, served as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Hospice of the Piedmont and was an active Member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Ivy, Virginia.

He died in Charlottesville, Virginia on December 28, 1997.