St. Thomas renames dorm after former Archbishop Harry Flynn

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The University of St. Thomas renamed a building today after Harry Flynn, former archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The building, an undergraduate residence hall that opened in 2005 on the St. Paul campus, was known as Selby Hall because of its location on Selby Avenue. It will now be called Flynn Hall.

More than a dozen donors committed more than $14 million to secure naming rights for Flynn, according to the university. St. Thomas has a practice of awarding naming rights for a building when a gift of at least half the construction cost (in this case, $28 million) is given or pledged.

The naming is in keeping with a 115-year-old tradition of naming buildings at St. Thomas and the St. Paul Seminary after the bishops and archbishops who have led the Catholic Church in this region since 1837. There are 13 buildings named after 11 bishops and archbishops.

Flynn, who has served as chair of the St. Thomas Board of Trustees since 1995, retired as archbishop a year ago. He maintains an office and a residence on the St. Thomas campus. Pioneer Press