Dr. Edwin Thomas "Tom" Strom, Ph.D.

Dr. E. Thomas (Tom) Strom (a Ph.D., not a real doctor) died October 26, 2024, at age 88, in Palma de Majorca, Spain while on vacation with his daughter and her husband. He was a chemist, teacher, editor, writer, and follower of Christ.

The burial with graveside services will be held at 11:30 am, Wednesday, December 4, 2024 at Dallas National Cemetery, 2000 Mountain Creek Pkwy, Dallas, TX. Those in attendance are invited to join the family afterwards for fellowship at Ojeda’s Mexican Restaurant, 2109 N Hampton Rd, DeSoto, TX, beginning at 1:15 pm.

A Celebration of Life service will be held to celebrate Tom’s long, rich Christian life at 10 am, Saturday, January 25, 2025 at Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church. All those who knew Tom are welcome to attend both services.

To honor Tom’s memory as an Adjunct Professor in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, the University of Texas at Arlington has set up a memorial scholarship in his name. The family asks that any contributions be made to one of the following.

• UTA Edwin Thomas Strom Memorial Scholarship https://www.give.uta.edu/strom

• Agape Fund or Scholarship Fund of Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church https://www.ocpres.com/give

Edwin Thomas Strom was born June 11, 1936, in Des Moines, Iowa. His mother was a Swedish immigrant, Maria Kristina Johansson Strom, and his father was Edwin Lewis Carolina Strom, himself the son of Swedish immigrants. His parents and half-brothers, Norman Edwin Strom and William Val Strom, preceded him in death. Tom was also preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Charlotte Faye Williams Strom (https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/dallas-tx/charlotte-strom-11409166), who died in August 2023, and his son, Eric William Strom (https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/chapin-sc/eric-strom-11841994), who died in May 2024.

He is survived by his daughter Laura Christine Strom and her husband Mark Stackpole, his son’s wife Kathy Kirchhoff Strom, his grandchildren Sven Erik Strom Dickinson, Karin Noël Strom Dickinson, Thor Kjell Strom Dickinson, Michelle Kimberly Strom, and Diana Gao Dickinson, step-grandchild Evan Stackpole, his former son-in-law Wade Dickinson, and his nieces Linda Strom Plazak, Nancy Fahrney Fallis, and Kristine Fahrney Wiant. He is survived by great granddaughter, Nohea’mani Charlotte Norman-Dickinson, and great grandson, Jace Akua Norman-Dickinson. His wife, Charlotte, his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren were the greatest joy of his old age.

Tom Strom grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and graduated first in his class at North Des Moines High School. He attended the University of Iowa on an Iowa Merit Scholarship and graduated with a B.S. Chemistry degree in 1958. He married his wife, Charlotte, the day after graduation. At the University of Iowa, he was a member of Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Lambda Upsilon honorary fraternities, and Theta Xi social fraternity. He received awards in both his junior and senior years as the outstanding student in chemistry. He went to graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating in 1961 with an M.S. Chemistry degree in nuclear chemistry. There followed graduate school at Iowa State University as an NIH Fellow, where he received a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry under mentor Glen Russell in 1964.

He joined Mobil Research and Development Corp. in Dallas in January 1964, but shortly thereafter entered the U.S. Army Chemical Corps as a 1st Lieutenant to fulfill an ROTC obligation. He rejoined Mobil in March 1966, as a Senior Research Chemist. He retired from Mobil in December 1995. He had been teaching chemistry in night school at institutions such as Dallas Baptist University, El Centro Community College, UT-Dallas, and UT-Arlington (UTA), so after retiring from Mobil, he immediately joined the faculty at UTA as an Adjunct Professor, where he taught organic, polymer, and industrial chemistry for more than forty years until May 2020. Scores of his students wound up in medical, dental, and pharmacy programs. As a researcher, he had around 50 publications, and he held 25 U.S. patents and numerous foreign patents.

He was active in church, community, and professional affairs. He was a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and the International Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Society. He served ACS for many years as a Councilor and was also on the ACS Committees on Economic and Professional Affairs and International Relations. He won the Wilfred T. Doherty Award of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the ACS in 1989. Tom was Editor for over 27 years of the ACS regional publication, The Southwest Retort, and wrote many articles, book reviews, and editorials for that magazine.

He was the co-editor of six books on the history of chemistry:

• 100 Plus Years of Plastics. Leo Baekeland and Beyond;

• Pioneers of Quantum Chemistry;

• The Foundations of Physical Organic Chemistry. 50 Years of the James Flack Norris Award;

• The Posthumous Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Volume 1. Correcting the Errors and Oversights of the Nobel Prize Committee;

• The Posthumous Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Volume 2. Ladies in Waiting for the Nobel Prize; and

• Pioneers of Magnetic Resonance.

For the last five of those six books, he wrote or co-wrote chapters on famous chemists.

In 2009 he was honored to be one of the inaugural groups of ACS Fellows, and he served the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry as Chair in 2011-2012. At the time of his death, he was Book Review Editor for the journal Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. With SPE he served many years on the International Oil Field Chemistry Symposium Committee.

When integration came to Southwest Oak Cliff in 1971, he worked in the area of neighborhood stabilization. He headed a group of interveners in the DISD school desegregation suit to see that integrated areas of Oak Cliff would not be subjected to forced busing. He also was a member of the Tri-Ethic Committee monitoring the DISD desegregation efforts. A member of Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church from 1983 on, he served on the Session of that congregation, and he participated in the church’s Great Banquet programs.

Tom was a classical music buff and played the piano reasonably well. He loved the composers Rachmaninoff, Puccini, Delius, Rutter, and Debussy, and he was a tireless promoter of the music of Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. He had a fine, but subtle sense of humor, an example of which is present in this obituary. He enjoyed reading, and an important hobby was Egyptology. He was a member of the North Texas Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt. He was also a long-time, 50+ years, member of the Oak Cliff Lions Club.

Excerpt from the obituary on Dr. Strom at the UTA Chemistry and Biochemistry website.

“‘Tom Strom was a wonderful person and a true all-rounder — a dedicated scientist, an inspiring teacher, a gifted writer, and a committed public servant,’ said Rasika Dias, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. ‘His contributions to our department and the wider chemical community were substantial. Passionate and active in his research until the end, Tom inspired all who knew him. He will be deeply missed.’”

His family, friends and church community feel the same – Tom was an inspiration and will be missed in the hearts of all those fortunate enough to know him.

Link to UTA article on Dr. Strom: https://www.uta.edu/academics/schools-colleges/science/news/2024/11/14/in-memoriam-e--thomas-strom--longtime-adjunct-professor-in-chemistry