Robert Barr Flinn, M.D.

Robert Barr Flinn, M.D. died at age 91 in Greenville, Delaware, on September 2, 2022, of metastatic melanoma. He was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1931 to Elizabeth Waters Flinn and Lewis Barr Flinn, M.D. After attending Friends School, he graduated from Princeton University in 1952 and received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1956. He subsequently interned at Yale University and Grace New Haven Community Hospital, before moving to Boston in 1958 for his Residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Nephrology at the Brigham Hospital. He returned to Yale in 1960 to serve as Chief Resident. Also in 1960, Bob married Sarah Mair Flinn (Sally) of Chevy Chase, Maryland, with whom he shared his life for fifty-five years until her death in 2015.

From 1961 to 1963, Bob and Sally lived in Wiesbaden, Germany, where Bob worked as a physician at the U.S. Air Force Base Hospital. In 1963, Bob moved with his family to Wilmington to work for the predecessors of Christiana Care Health System, commencing as head of the Section of Nephrology and the Director of the Medical Education and Residency Programs. In 1972, he was named Associate Director of the Department of Medicine. Ultimately, in 1980 he became Chairman of the Department of Medicine, a position he held for 26 years until he retired in 2006 at age 75.

During his career, Bob had many honors and accomplishments. While a Fellow at the Brigham Hospital, he was part of the team that performed the first successful kidney transplant in non-identical twins. He and his colleagues developed the first dialysis centers in Delaware outside of a hospital. In 1995, he was first to be named the Hugh R. Sharp, Jr. Chair of Medicine.

Bob pursued many interests and hobbies outside of medicine. He and Sally travelled extensively in Europe during their time in Germany and subsequently the rest of the world, including Asia, India, Africa, and behind the iron curtain, at a time when travel was not easy. He and Sally greatly enjoyed living on the family farm “Sills Mill,” in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, where he always had a project under way. Bob enjoyed fishing from his boat in Nantucket, Massachusetts, bird watching and landscape painting. He also enjoyed his time with his family, delighting his grandchildren with irreverent quips.

Bob was a committed doctor to many, a friend to all and a kind, loving, and supportive father and grandfather, who brought a positive attitude to everyone and everything that he touched. He will be deeply missed.

Bob is survived by his sons C. Barr Flinn of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania and Ian W. Flinn, M.D. of Nashville, Tennessee, daughters-in-law Grier B. Flinn and Amy C. Flinn, grandchildren Ryan, Allie, Tolly, Katie, Lindsay and Barr and brother Irvine D. Flinn.

A Memorial Service will be held on Sunday, September 18, 2022, 1:30 p.m, at Christ Church Christiana Hundred, 505 East Buck Road, Wilmington, Delaware.