Meet Our Donors

Mike '70 & Cisi Flynn '72

Mike '70 & Cisi Flynn '72 have remembered Lyndon in their will.

I had not been at Lyndon long before good things began to happen for me. Graham Newell, for reasons I would learn later, took me under his considerable wing and I soon realized I could not fail this man. My checkered academic past would have to end and I would have to study! And so we did.

The first day of my second year I met Larissa "Cisi" McDonald of Plainfield. She, too, loved history and Professor Newell made room for her under that wing. Now I had two compelling reasons to stay at Lyndon and do well.

Cisi and I married shortly after graduation and eventually began long, wonderful, teaching careers at Lyndon Institute. LSC was, of course, just up the hill so we were no strangers - taking courses, attending events, driving Graham to and fro - and we could see that the LSC that had done so much for us was doing the same for later arrivals.

We continued to host Graham at our house frequently for dinner, watch and compete with each on Jeopardy, and generally enjoy his learned company. We prided ourselves on trying to mean to our students what he meant to us. That was a repayment of sorts. After his death we vowed to try to do what we could to insure that perhaps a few other young Vermont kids would find a Graham Newell amongst the new teachers on campus and also find rewarding careers because LSC exists and thrives. And because it does, little miracles happen there every day.