Brother Chandler Flickinger, Beta Phi ’49, a decorated World War II veteran and longtime California attorney, died Jan. 19, 2014, in Fallbrook, Calif. He was 88.
Brother Flickinger was born on Feb. 8, 1925 in Whittier, Calif., the oldest of five children. He started his first job at a young age by working at his father's gas station. Later, the Flickingers moved to Twentynine Palms and raised their family there. When Chan was 12 years old, he drove the school bus .which was actually the family’s old seven-passenger Cadillac. He was student body president and valedictorian in high school in 1942.
He enrolled at the University of Arizona in the fall of 1942, majoring in business, and pledged with the Beta Phi Chapter. He was initiated on Feb. 7, 1943.
He left the University of Arizona not long after to serve his country in the Army. As an infantryman fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in France, he earned a Purple Heart.
Upon leaving the field hospital, he was transferred to counter intelligence and was sent to the University of Nebraska where he attended the U.S. Army Area and Language Studies School. When the program ceased operations, he was sent to Camp Phillips, Kan., with the Counter Intelligence Corps. His counter-intelligence work occurred in Germany from May of 1945 through January 1946. Brother Flickinger returned to the UA in June 1946 and was elected Consul to two consecutive terms. He was credited with strengthening the fraternity after the devastating effects of World War II.
In February of 1947 he was presented with the Legion of Merit Awardgiven for exceptional meritorious conduct in the military. The Legion of Merit is sixth in the order of precedence of U.S. military decorations. He received the award for his service as technical sergeant with the 307th Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment of the Seventh Army in the European Theater. Flickinger served as a spy who impersonated a German soldier in order to locate and arrest notable members of the Nazi regime.
Brother Flickinger returned to the UA and graduated in June of 1949 with a bachelor’s degree in public administration. He then attended the Army Intelligence Service School. He left for Vienna, Austria, in February 1950 to work for the State Department Displaced Persons Branch. He later attended the University of Vienna for graduate studies in languages and history.
He returned to the U.S. to study at Stanford Law School and graduated in June 1957. Chandler remained in the northern California area to practice law for the next 40 years. He also achieved the level of life master as a bridge player.
All Honor to His Name.
