Eighty-one years, four months and five days after his birth, Alex Flynn lost a brief, stoic, fight with lung cancer, dying quietly on Jan. 22, 2010 in his bed at Alpine Ridge Retirement Apartments in Mount Vernon while under hospice care.

A memorial funeral mass for Alex will take place at 11 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 6 at St. Hubert Catholic Church in Langley, with a reception to follow.

Aloysius Stanislaus Joseph (Alex) Flynn was born on Sept. 17, 1928 to Mary and Aloysius Leo Flynn in Tacoma in 1928.

Alex lived in many locations in his younger years throughout Montana, Washington and California. He served in the Army from 1950-52.

In 1958 he married Carol Remington and raised four children, Tony, Rebecca, Chris and Dawn. In 1964, the family landed on Whidbey Island, where Alex lived the next 42 years, 28 of those as an independent motor route dealer for the Seattle Times.

Alex was an involved and vocal community and environmental supporter, having been a charter founder of the Help House for needy folks on South Whidbey in the early 1970s while at the same time helping to establish a grassroots recycling program in the community.

In 1977, he was a leader of the activist group Save the Trees, whose historic efforts to preserve old-growth forest lands near South Whidbey State Park forever changed the way sensitive areas around state parks are protected. He much cherished his stint as an elected freeholder in the unsuccessful 1976 charter campaign for Island County.

Alex also twice ran as a Democrat for the position of Island County commissioner, in 1972 and again in 1980.

He was also an accomplished artist, author and poet, he performed in several South Whidbey stage productions and was known for his eagle carvings.

Instead of flowers the family requests remembrances be made in his name to Senior Services of Island County,

14594 SR 525, Langley, WA 98260.

To read Alex’s full obituary and to sign his guest registry or share a memory, go online at www.kernfuneralhome.com.