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.
