Jean enjoyed a long career in higher education, including serving as Director of Admissions at Pepperdine University’s School of Business & Management and as a Dean of Students at Central Maine Community College.  She also served on the University Board of Trustees and eased into retirement by writing numerous grants for rural communities and the Passamaquoddy Tribe. When Jean heard the tragic story of Billy Laird, she knew immediately his was a story that should be told and made the decision to be its teller. She has since authored six Maine historical fictions, shedding light on lesser-known pieces of Maine history. Billy Boy was her first novel, and in a review by a retired Harvard professor, he writes, “In literary heaven, Flahive’s Billy Laird may sit at the table with Benjy Compson from William Falulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and Lennie Small from John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.” Jean and her husband, Bill, live in South Portland.