Former IRA board member James Edward Flood dies

James Edward Flood, noted educator, literacy researcher and advocate, and former International Reading Association board member, died Sunday, July 15, 2007, after a three-year battle with myelodysplasia syndrome.

Flood chaired and co-chaired many committees of the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, the National Council of Researchers in Education, and the National Reading Conference. His numerous educational awards include recognition as the outstanding teacher educator in the Department of Teacher Education at San Diego State University (SDSU), the distinguished research lecturer in the Graduate Division of Research at SDSU, and a member of the California and international reading halls of fame. Flood also was president of the National Reading Conference, and served six years as a co-editor of California’s literacy journal, The California Reader.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School, 357 Clermont Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11238, or to Health Sciences High and Middle College (HSHMC), 8888 Balboa Ave., #150, San Diego, CA 92123. HSHMC will create the James Flood Reading Room for students. All donations in his name will be used to purchase books. His family may be contacted c/o The Flood Family, 6545 Norman Lane, San Diego, CA 92113.

Flood attended Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn; completed a bachelor of arts degree in English at Catholic University, Washington, DC; a master’s in English Education at New York University; and was awarded his PhD in language and literacy from Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.

Flood began his teaching career as a high school English teacher and administrator in New York and New Hampshire. He was a graduate assistant at Stanford, a professor at Boston University, a distinguished professor at San Diego State University, and received a Fulbright fellowship to Portugal.

He is survived by Sharon Flood, his wife of 32 years; his daughter Johanna; his son Bart, both of whom live in California; his father-in-law Anthony Ryan; sister Margaret Kurmis of Florida; and brother Frank Flood of Colorado. His parents, Francis and Ethel Parker Flood, and his brother Robert, preceded him in death.

There will be celebration of his life at 10:30 a.m., July 30, 2007, at the Church of the Immaculata at the University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110, with a reception afterward.