George T. Flom

George Tobias Flom (April 12, 1871 – January 4, 1960) was an American professor of linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and author of numerous reference books.

Background He married Loretta Regina Muldoon (1876–1952) in 1899 and together they were parents of three children: George Reginald Flom, Elizabeth Edda Flom and Mary Antionette Flom, all of whom were born in Iowa City.

Career Along with historian and Old Norse translator Laurence M. Larson, Flom established the Scandinavian studies program at Illinois, and his influence was extensive. He supervised the doctoral dissertations of, among others, Ingebrigt Lillehei, future University of Washington Scandinavian studies department chair and August Strindberg scholar Walter Gilbert Johnson (1905-1983) as well as the noted Harvard University linguist Einar Haugen. (Johnson would later supervise the Vilhelm Moberg dissertation of University of Illinois Swedish professor Rochelle A. Wright.)

He was also one of the earliest scholars to undertake a thorough investigation of the controversial Kensington Stone of Solem, Minnesota, publishing his findings twelve years after its discovery.

A so-called festschrift in Flom's honor came out in Urbana entitled Scandinavian Studies Presented to George T. Flom by Colleagues and Friends in 1942.