Title: Carl A. Flom Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1928-1968

Creator:

• Flom, Carl Albert, 1906-1976

Call Number: Mss 561; PH 3873

Quantity: 0.4 c.f. (1 archives box) and 154 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Correspondence, research notes, speeches, and scrapbooks documenting the military career of Carl A. Flom, a prominent Madison, Wisconsin, attorney. His correspondence deals mainly with military matters and his scrapbooks detail his experiences at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, from 1940 to 1946. Other materials deal with his service in Japan with the Division of Military Courts. Although a large part of the research notes deals with the trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita for war crimes in the Philippines, little of the material dates from that time; most of the sources for these notes are from the 1960s. The collection does not pertain to Flom's career as attorney and judge.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00561

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Carl Albert Flom was born in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1906. He attended Madison Central High School and the University of Wisconsin from which he received his law degree in 1931. In 1932 he opened his own law firm. He was an active member of the Madison political community and was elected to the Dane County Board of Supervisors in 1934. In 1940 he was elected alderman for the Third Ward.

Flom had joined the Army Reserve Corps in 1929 and when war threatened in 1940 he became the first Madison alderman to volunteer for active duty. He was stationed at Camp Wheeler, Georgia, for the duration of the war. From 1946 to 1947 he served as chief of military courts attached to General Douglas MacArthur's staff in Japan. While in Japan he dealt mainly with the trial of General Tomoyuki Yamashita concerning war crimes in the Philippines. Flom retired from the army in 1947 with the rank of colonel.

In 1951, Colonel Flom became the first commandant of the 5956 Organized Reserve Corps (ORC) School located at the ORC Armory on Charter Street in Madison, part of a system of such schools throughout the United States, whose purpose was to give instruction and training to Army Reserve officers in their specialized fields. Also after his return to Madison he resumed his law practice and was eventually appointed a court commissioner, serving until 1959. In 1958 he was appointed Dane County Probate Court Judge, and was reelected in 1959 and 1965. Flom retired from active practice in 1971 after he was defeated in his third bid for reelection as probate judge.

Flom married Juanita Judkins in 1935. They had no children. He died in 1976.

Although Carl Flom spent most of his life in Madison, Wisconsin, as an alderman, practicing attorney, and judge, most of the material in this collection deals with his military career in Georgia and Japan from 1940 to 1947. The papers include correspondence and army memos, army memorabilia and photographs, and research notes for speeches on various military and political topics.

The Correspondence is mainly military in nature and includes no material from his years of law practice. The Speeches and Research Notes date mainly from the 1960s except for some official military photographs and one or two newspaper articles. The Scrapbooks detail his years at Camp Wheeler, 1940-1946, and include photographs and newspaper clippings of various camp events. Other photographs from both Georgia and Japan, some identified and some not, are in the part of this collection with call number PH 3873.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Mrs. Carl A. Flom, Madison, Wisconsin, 1978. Accession Number: M78-102

Processing Information

Processed by Elizabeth Warfield and Joanne Hohler, December, 1980.

Mss 561 Box   1 Folder   1	Correspondence and Army Materials, 1928-1968
Box   1 Folder   2	Organized Reserve Corps School, 1951-1963
	Speeches and Research Notes, circa 1950s and 1960s
Box   1 Folder   3	Army Reserve
Box   1 Folder   4	Fidel Castro
Box   1 Folder   5	General Minoru Genda
Box   1 Folder   6	General Tomoyuki Yamashita
	Scrapbooks
Box   1 Folder   7-9	Vol. 1, 1940-1946, March
Box   1 Folder   10	Vol. 2, 1946, August-1951
Box   1 Folder   11	Vol. 3, 1950
Box   1 Folder   12	Miscellaneous Fragments
PH 3873	Photographs