TRANSACTIONS NEWSLETTER ONLINE

October 2004

Miriam Gholikely Award:

H. Welton Flynn

H. Welton Flynn presided over more than three decades of growth and innovation at San Francisco Muni.

H. Welton Flynn has been improving public transportation in San Francisco longer than many of us have been riding it. After providing more than 34 years of leadership for the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), Flynn retired from public service in April of 2004. The lifelong transportation trailblazer received MTC’s inaugural Miriam Gholikely Award.

Flynn started breaking barriers early in his career. With his appointment to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (which then oversaw Muni) in September 1970, Flynn became the first African-American appointed to a San Francisco city commission. He then served six terms as president and remained on the commission until 1991. Because of his leadership skills and his many years of experience in overseeing Muni, Flynn was appointed by then-Mayor Willie Brown to the Public Transportation Commission in 1996, and became the first chairman of the Municipal Transportation Agency in 2000.

Among Flynn’s many accomplishments during his years of public service was his role in establishing affirmative action programs for women and minorities in city employment and enabling more women-owned and minority-owned firms to obtain city contracts, an effort that included the hiring of the first African-American general manager for Muni, Curtis E. Green, Senior.

Under Flynn’s leadership, Muni launched transit passes for convenient service starting in 1974, created its accessible services program in 1979, restructured major routes and schedules for better transit service in 1979–83, introduced Muni Metro service in 1980–82, rehabilitated the cable car system in 1982–84, and began the Third Street Light Rail Project that is still under way.

According to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, “Mr. Flynn has been a crucial force for more than three decades in providing residents of and visitors to San Francisco with one of the best public transportation systems in the nation.”

Contents

2004 Transportation Awards