James (Jim) Flynn (6 October 1934 - 28 November 2012) was a prominent researcher of Risk Management.

After graduation from St. Ann’s in 1948, and Gonzaga Prep in 1952, he served in the U.S. Army, graduating from Eastern Washington State College in 1963. He earned a PhD in English Literature from the University of Washington in 1974.

After teaching at universities in North Carolina and New York, he became a social scientist with a specialty in environmental studies (University of Kansas).

He collaborated with a group of scholars on a multi-year contract to study socioeconomic impacts of nuclear power plants across the U.S. Later, in collaboration with Mountain West (then located in Phoenix, Arizona), Jim formed a multi-disciplinary group of scientists to work with the State of Nevada in opposition to development of Yucca Mountain, Nevada as a high-level nuclear waste repository.

This multi-million-dollar contract with Nevada, first with Mountain West, then with Decision Research (Eugene, Oregon), and subsequently with San-Francisco-based Pacific World History Institute (brother Dennis, Director) continued for over twenty years; the result was a successful fight against the U.S. Department of Energy’s attempt to turn Yucca Mountain, NV into the country’s sole nuclear waste repository.

In the process, Jim generated an impressive record of scholarly publications.