Alva Raleigh Flint, Educator devoted to small school dies in crash

[Stan]

The cars and trucks jockeying for position during the morning rush hour Tuesday on Interstate 40 West had slowed to a crawl near Briley Parkway.

Alva Raleigh Flint, a 77-year-old retired teacher, and his 14-year-old passenger, Yuna Asakawa, a student from Japan, were making their way back to Savannah, Tenn., to Harbert Hills Academy. It was the teenager’s first trip to the United States.

The sophomore came to study at the K-12 Seventh-day Adventist boarding school, where Flint and his wife, Sue, had taught for about six years before recently retiring from the classroom.

The Flints, who lived near the campus, loved the school so much that they continued working there in other jobs — he did maintenance work and she was the head cook in the cafeteria. Sometimes Flint drove to Nashville International Airport to pick up arriving students or packages and ferry them back to Hardin County.

That’s what Flint was doing Tuesday, sitting in a traffic jam, when a pickup truck slammed into the back of his Saturn sedan. The impact killed Flint, who died on the interstate. Asakawa was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with injuries, but none were life threatening.

The driver of the Nissan Frontier truck, Matthew Corn, 29, of Madison, Ala., told investigators that his brakes were malfunctioning and he could not stop. Police have impounded the truck to determine if there were mechanical defects, a spokesman said. Attempts to reach Corn were unsuccessful.

For the Flints, serving the school’s 63 students was a ministry, said Joe Simpson, principal of Harbert Hills Academy.

“They were humble people, servants, very dedicated to this work. They strongly believe that young people need a Christian education, not just an education,” Simpson said.

Simpson broke the news to Sue Flint that her husband of 46 years had been killed doing what he loved.

“We felt God call us to work with children, young people,” said Sue Flint, 72. “There were so many children we had adopted as family, and I feel really fortunately that we are all going to be surrounded by these young people as we mourn. It’s a real privilege we’ve had to be close to these children’s hearts. They’ve been calling all day and they keep telling me, ‘Mr. Flint was our father figure.’ ”

School grieves

Sue Flint met her husband while attending college in Michigan. He was a native of Montana; she is a native of British Columbia. They had three children, Fred, 44, Jeanine, 42, and Flora, 40, and five grandchildren.

Before moving to Tennessee, the Flints worked at a similar boarding school in Fort Collins, Colo., for seven years. At Harbert Hills, Flint worked as an upper math, physics and chemistry teacher before retiring, while Sue Flint taught elementary students.

Flint also served as a spiritual leader at the school, often leading worship services in the school chapel.

Losing him has devastated the tiny student body. Classes were canceled for the remainder of the day Tuesday as students and staff tried to come to terms with their grief.

At Harbert Hills, which opened in 1952, teachers and staff either live on campus or in houses owned by the school near campus. The Flints lived just off campus, Simpson said.

The couple had bought a 12-acre property at Shiloh Park after their retirement and were busy fixing it up.

“It’s kind of like a little valley,” Sue Flint said, her voice quivering. “I had pictured it with flowers and stuff all over. I wanted to transform it into our own little oasis. Now I doubt I will ever live there. It needs a man’s touch.”

Sue Flint said her children and grandchildren were planning to arrive in Nashville today. Funeral services are incomplete.

“He was a very giving and caring person, always thinking about someone else,” Sue Flint said. “It’s going to be hard, but I have faith in my heavenly Father. I know He’ll see me through, but I will miss him terribly.