Merrill Flood's papers are arranged into five series. A small Biographical File contains curricula vitae (1966 and 1974) and news clippings from the University of Michigan News and Information Service. Also included is a bibliography of nearly three hundred published and unpublished research papers which Flood produced between 1930 and 1976.
The Correspondence Series (1938-1990) is arranged chronologically and consists of five folders related to Flood's research during the 1940s and the 1980s, with little material from the intervening years. Correspondence relating to Flood's work with the Faculty Program on University Governance has been interfiled with the related research reports.
A small Publications File (1937-1984, n.d.) contains twelve journal articles relating to the full range of Flood's research interests. Most of Flood's Research Notes (1929-1967, scattered) were unlabeled and undated. One file of notes, better labeled than most and dating largely from the late 1950s to early 1960s, has been retained in its original order.
The bulk of the material in the Flood collection is contained in the series, Reports and Drafts (1930-1981, n.d.), arranged chronologically. The series begins with two papers from the late 1930s on local government in New Jersey, followed by consultation research reports from the 1940s on optical systems, aerial combat surveillance, and aerial mapping. From the early 1950s, the series contains several reports on game theory and decision-making written for the RAND Corporation. Three papers relating to management science resulted from Flood's work at Columbia University in the mid-1950s. The series also consists of numerous reports documenting Flood's appointments at the University of Michigan. His work with the Mental Health Research Institute is represented in several research papers on learning theory and information processing networks. The other substantive section of this series consists of six working papers, with related correspondence, on decision-making and organization theory, resulting from Flood's 1970s work with the Faculty Research Program on University Governance. Reports from 1943, 1962, 1967 and 1973 derive from Flood's consultation work on behalf of private organizations.
This collection does not document Flood's work as Head of Willow Run Laboratories. For information on this period, researchers should consult the record group University of Michigan Division of Research Development and Administration.
Merrill M. Flood devoted his career to researching applied mathematics and organizational theory. He advised a wide variety of public and private organizations on how to apply mathematical principles to practical situations and social interactions. Flood was born in Seward, Nebraska on November 28, 1908. He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska in 1933, and a master's degree in mathematics from the same institution in 1930. In 1935, Flood earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton University.
At Princeton, Flood began his career as a consultant and researcher, advising state and local government organizations in New Jersey and elsewhere. From 1942 to 1949, Flood owned and operated a consulting firm, advising government agencies on national defense technology, primarily aerial surveillance and mapping instruments. From 1949 to 1952, Flood worked as a Project Officer for Logistics at the RAND Corporation. At RAND, Flood worked under his former teacher, John von Neumann, conducting pioneering research into game theory, which strongly influenced the government's nuclear strategy during the Cold War.
In 1953, Flood returned to academia as director of the Institute for Research in the Management of Industrial Production at Columbia University. In 1956, Flood accepted his first appointment at the University of Michigan, as head of Willow Run Laboratories (predecessor of the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan). During his three-year tenure at Willow Run, Flood continued his research into combat surveillance systems as supervisor of Project Michigan. Flood also accepted other university appointments: professor of Industrial Engineering in 1956, senior research mathematician at the Mental Health Research Institute in 1959, and professor of mathematical biology in the Department of Psychiatry, also in 1959. From 1959 until his retirement from the university in 1967, he researched learning models, adaptive systems, and information storage and retrieval networks. After several years of consulting for business and government organizations, Flood returned to Ann Arbor in 1974 for a three-year appointment as a professor of education and director of the Faculty Research Program on University Governance, where he continued his investigation of decision-making and organization theory. After his appointment as professor emeritus in 1977, Flood continued his research at Stanford University, the University of Louisville, and, finally, the University of California at San Diego. Flood died in La Jolla, California on March 24, 1991.
