Harry J. Romm was born 4 Sept 1899 in Navasota, TX, to Benno Romm, born in Schwarzenau, Germany, and a mother from Tennessee.
Romm was still enrolled in public school at age 19 when he registered for the WWI draft in 1918, later graduating from Galveston Central High School, Galveston, Texas. In 1920, according to the Federal Census, Romm was employed as a porter in a dry goods store in Galveston. He married Fannie B. Dunlap in Dallas, Texas, on 11 June 1927 and was listed in 1928 Dallas City Directory as a teacher.
Moving to Ames in 1923, Romm earned his B.S. in Zoology in 1930, M.S. in Entomology in 1934. In 1935, Romm was an attendee at the banquet held by the Iowa State Alumni Association for Frederick D. Patterson’s inauguration as President of Tuskegee where he was listed as the Head of Department of Biology at Tuskegee Institute. While at Tuskegee, he served as a Volunteer Weather Collector for NOAA, a position that was held prior by George Washington Carver. During WWII, he served as a Principal Correspondent for the Army Specialist Corps.
Romm went on to earn his Ph.D. in Plant Morphology in 1946 and was later listed as teaching Biology at Southern University, Louisiana, in 1952. He died on 15 November 1955 and is buried in Lakeview Cemetery, Galveston, Texas. His headstone suggests he was a Catholic.
Iowa State College Dissertation Title: The development and structure of the vegetative and reproductive organs of kudzu, Pueraria thunbergiana (Sieb and Zucc) Benth; The insect depredators of purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.), 1946
Iowa State University Catalog Record:https://quicksearch.lib.iastate.edu/permalink/01IASU_INST/q0r84t/cdi_proquest_journals_301851928
