A little child did lead one Georgia pastor and his town

This column by The Atlanta Constitution’s Editor Eugene Patterson appeared Sun., Dec. 25, 1966:

Dick Flinn of Carrollton got a call from the sheriff years ago. The sheriff was troubled. He had a small abandoned boy on his hands and nowhere to put him but in a jail cell.

Dick — the Rev. Richard Orme Flinn — left his Presbyterian study and went to see what he could do. When he saw the dirty little face pressed against the prison bars, he knew he could never get away from responsibility for such as these.

He took the boy to a barber shop for a bath and a delousing, bought him some clothes and took him into his home. His house and his church have been havens ever since for children who need a friend. The first boy has long since been educated and started on a constructive career in society.

On Oak Mountain, a fine school for youngsters now stands as a kind of monument to Dick Flinn’s patient effort and persistent belief in the divine possibilities that exist in every child. The good he has done in his years of quiet service at Carrollton can never be reckoned.

He went there when the area was still something of a depressed frontier region of the state. Old wealth centered in places like Newnan to the south. Old misery dwelt in the red dirt back country of Carroll County.

Understanding is slow to grow from poor soil. In those days West Georgia College and Carrollton’s big textile mill stared across a valley at each other. To the mill owners, the college was a little pink and suspect. To the college, the dismal company village around the mill typified medieval capitalism. Understanding has grown now, through the years of Dr. Flinn’s presence, just as Carrollton has grown and prospered, and as children have grown up from the time when his frame house was a way station to them in distress.

Knowing the good and gentle man, one appreciates all the more his annual Christmas greeting. “May His abiding presence comfort, encourage, sustain and strengthen you in all good works to do His will as we journey on together by HIs Grace,” he writes.

And on the card is a prayer he composed for this season. There is no better way to introduce Dick Flinn than through his words, born of his own life and works in the service of the Lord. This is his Christmas prayer: “Lord of all ... Who came to us in Bethlehem stall ...

To whom the Shepherds came ...

With angelic praises in their hearts ...

To whom the wise men came ...

Their way lighted by the guiding star ...

To whom mankind has turned, and turns

From age to age, for help and hope and joy ...

Come Thou, O Lord, to us Thy needy children ...

Help us who helpless are without Thy help ...

Teach us to work Thy works of kindness and of love ... While the day lasts ... Before the night shall overtake us ...

And our work is done. Amen.”