There’s a lot to be said about Jim Flynn, one of the original founders of the Sunridge Foundation. Some found him to be a formidable boss, others knew him as a community visionary. But what some might not know is that he was a very silent but powerful force behind the success of the Sunridge Foundation, the precursor to the Fountain Hills Community Foundation. And when he was asked to step up, he did so even when he was asked to showcase a talent he didn’t possess – dancing.
“Jim was a very diverse person, very smart,” Shelley Johnson recalls. Shelley, MCO’s marketing and community relations coordinator for 16 years, worked alongside Jim at MCO Properties when he was Vice President. “His vision was to create a community that was wonderfully successful, beautiful, and one where residents supported each other.”
Shelley said Jim shied away from being the front man for the foundation and instead, convinced Peg Tibbits “the mother of Fountain Hills” to serve on the first foundation board. With Peg as the face of the foundation, Jim was free to operate in the background.
But that didn’t mean he escaped the limelight completely…
Shelley distinctly remembers one Gala in which Jim was asked to participate in the talent show. In the spirit of raising money for the community, Jim and another board member donned top hats and tails and hilariously tap danced their way through a musical number.
“It’s one of my fondest memories of Jim Flynn,” Shelley related. “I’d never seen that side of him before. It was so out of character – but so hilarious and so well received.”