Flora Khin Than Myint

Flora Khin Than Myint

11/16/1928 ~ 05/18/2022

Resident of Clayton

Flora Khin Than Myint was born on November 16, 1928 to Walter Black and Daw Tint in Rangoon, Burma. She was the youngest of two daughters. Her eldest sister was Marie. Her mother was a Buddhist and Father was Catholic.  Flora was Baptized and brought up as a Catholic from young. She attended a British Catholic Convent school at the age of six till World War II. She was very driven and did well in school. She received numerous government scholarships and was one of the few to be sent to study abroad in India and Australia during her college years. She graduated with an MBA in finance and economics and post-graduate degree in statistics. 

Flora graduated from college after WWII in the early 1950’s, when there were only a few women who went that far in education. They were the first batch of young female graduates with degrees who helped to rebuild the country after WWII and Independence. After completing her degrees, she became an economist with the Ministry of National Planning. She worked with the country's balance of payments, budgetary planning and monetary and fiscal policy.

Flora was very ambitious and very business minded. She is what we called a super woman. When she was young, her mother had a clothing factory. From early on while attending the University, she would sell her mother’s clothing and under garments to her college friends.  Later, after marriage she would design and build homes with the help of her cousin, the architect, and rented them to the foreign embassy.  

In 1957, she married a fun, loving, jolly good man, U Kyaw Myint.  U Kyaw Myint worked as a Deputy Director of immigration in Rangoon, Burma.  Flora and Kyaw Myint had three wonderful children, Keith, Melody and Byron. Both the couples were very religious and were very active in the church.  They brought up all three kids with Christian values. 

They both enjoyed working, entertaining, traveling and being in the social scenes. 

Flora was also very family oriented and took care of her Mother Daw Tint throughout her life.  In May 1971, Flora, her family and her mother Daw Tint immigrated to the United States where they were sponsored and supported by her sister Marie and brother-in-law Henry Roberts. Their family settled in Concord, California. Within Months of their Arrival, Flora was able to get a job in the finance department at the Chevron Corporation on Diamond Blvd in Concord.  When she came to the U.S., she had to learn how to drive. In Burma, they had a driver and never drove before.  She also had to learn how to cook and perform all the domestic tasks.  She was also a great mother.  She would always spend time with her kids taking them to their school activities, soccer games, making their clothing and giving them a good education. 

When Flora moved to the United States, she was not able to find an executive job like she had in Burma. Because her other degrees were from foreign universities, she knew she would have to earn a degree from an American university to get an executive position in the United States.

She went back to college and in June of 1978 became the first minority woman to receive a Master's of Business Administration from St. Mary's College in Moraga.  While she was attending college, a classmate, an executive offered Flora a management level job. She became the senior cost analyst for vessel operations at Sea Land Services, Inc.  During her years at Sea Land, Flora also worked and lived in Seattle, Washington and Long Beach, California.  

In 1987, Flora married Professor Donald E. Savage, a renowned professor in Paleontology at UC Berkeley. They both did some traveling to Europe, North and South America.  

Don and Flora lived in Oklahoma and Utah for a few years while Don was opening paleontology museums for the Universities. 

Flora was a very loving, caring, and giving person. She not only gave to charities and loved ones but also gave her time and advice to help people in need. She would go out of her way to assist in getting jobs for people, help with getting their citizenships or even teaching them how to buy a house. She also loved spending time with her family and friends.

Flora loved to cook and bake. She developed a love for chocolate in her later years.   

When she left Burma, she left money to the Catholic Church and sponsored a minister to further the ministry and he became the Bishop and later became Cardinal of Burma.  She is very proud of him and all of his accomplishments, for his continual faith and dedication to the Lord and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Burmese community and around the world.

Flora passed away peacefully with her family by her side on May 18, 2022 at the age of 93.  

Flora is survived by her 3 children (Keith, Melody, Byron and their spouses Jill and Midori) and honorary son Cardinal Charles Maung Bo,  9 grandchildren (Jason, Christina, Melissa, Ryan, Calvin, Talia, Stuart, Brandan and Matthew and spouses Rachael, Tyler, Vika, and Sophie) and 8 great grandchildren (Irelynd, Breanna, Joseph, Tanner, Lily, Elah, Jaiden, and Noel).

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