Clarence Edwin Flynn

Born in Greene County, Indiana, in 1886, Clarence Edwin Flynn studied at DePauw University, earning an A.B. in 1911 and a D.D. in 1924. He was ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church and combined ministry with a long writing career, publishing poetry, essays, addresses, and religious pieces.

Flynn wrote in a direct, approachable style that often centered on faith, home, childhood, teaching, and civic responsibility. His surviving collections show both sides of his work: devotional and reflective poems, and prose that moves between Christian thought, humor, cultural commentary, and practical moral advice.

He died in 1970 in California. Although he is not widely known today, his collected poems and writings preserve the voice of a busy pastor-author whose work was meant to encourage, instruct, and speak clearly to ordinary readers.