CHARLES F.P. FROOM, 68, national authority on the works of Rudyard Kipling, and former police chief of Council Bluffs and an employee of the Union Pacific Railroad, was found dead in bed at his rooming house, 724 First Avenue, Wednesday evening.

Mr. Froom, employed in the valuation department of the Union Pacific Railroad in Omaha, had laid off work since the first of the week. Death was due to heart disease. His body was found by E.W. Corlies another roomer.

The younger son of a family close to the British nobility, Mr. Froom came to this country when he was 22 years old after a varied life in the British Army at home and abroad.

His only confident here during his later years was George S. Wright, attorney, whom he named in 1930 as the executor of his estate, when he should die. Frequent tales of his home life were heard by Mr. Wright from the former police chief but the lawyer says his memory of them is hazy.

Reared in England

"I remember him telling of the color and dash of English Army life when, as a younger son, he was sent to military school and trained as an officer of Queen Victoria. I do not remember his direct family connections as he explained them. I do know, however, that his family was one of the most artistocratic in the British Isles. He as a younger son could not share in their titles so the army was chosen as his career until he gave it up to come to America," Mr. Wright said.

Mr. Froom leaves a brother, Albert, an actor believed at present to be in New York, and two sisters, one of whom is LaMarquise Annette de Polignac of Harrow on Hill, Middlesex, England. The other sister, a baroness, lives in France.

Graduate of Marlborough

He was chief of police in this city from 1910 to 1914, the appointment being made by Thomas Maloney, who was then mayor. Older members of the police department remember Mr. Froom's regime as one in which stern discipline was coupled with a broad understanding of men. He left a memory at the police department that is still treasured by the older members of the force.

After serving Council Bluffs as police chief he became a state manager of the Iowa Democrat publicity bureau. A year later he assumed the managership of the speakers' bureau of the Nebraska Prosperity League. The following year he joined the Union Pacific system in March as a special agent. He was promoted to the valuation department on November 16, 1917, where he remained until his death. It is believed Mr. Froom first came into Council Bluffs and Omaha as conductor for the Pullman Company, but this could not be verified.

He was a graduate of Marlborough College in England.

Although always a busy man, Mr. Froom spent many hours pouring over the works of Rudyard Kipling.

"My interest in his work undoubtedly came from the fact that I had several uncles and other relatives in India with the British Army," he told friends.

Had Rare Collection

He was consulted by Americans and Europeans alike on matters pertaining to Kipling's works. He owned many first editions of the author's works, as well as having a large collection of folios containing original newspaper and magazine publications of the author's works. Besides these he owned more than 1,000 typewritten sheets bearing little known stories and poems, which were never printed by the author. Instructions to Mr. Wright which he included in his will directed that the valuable Kipling library be disposed of through Capt. L.H. Chandler of Washington, D.C. probably the leading authority on Kipling in the world. In previous letters to Captain Chandler, Mr. Froom explained, he had arranged for the method of disposal which he did not detail to his executor.

Edited Kipling Books

First public note of his extensive study of Kipling came in 1930 from Chandler, former admiral in the United States Navy, who had Mr. Froom edit line-by-line the "Summary of the Works of Rudyard Kipling" which Mr. Chandler published for the Grolier Society. Chandler and Froom met through the medium of the New York Times after Froom had written a note to the former admiral about his proposed work.

Just prior to the publication of the book, Mr. Froom was asked to come east and help with final arrangements. His remuneration was two volumes of the 325 published for members of this exclusive society. None was for sale.

Of Mr. Froom's ability, Mr. Chandler said: "He knows Kipling's works from beginning to end, and although a very busy man has given hours to line by line proofreading of my manuscript."

Rites to Be Friday

Talking of the proofreading, Mr. Froom is quoted as saying "all I had to do was to take out a few words here and there. Being a former newspaper man that was easy."

He formerly served as editor of The Nonpareil prior to 1910. He was also employed for a short time by an Omaha paper.

In 1927 he joined the International Kipling society at the request of Major Dunsterville, the original "Stalky" of Kipling's famous story of English school life called "Stalky and Company."

Funeral services will be held Friday at 2 p.m. at cutler's mortuary. Bluff city Lodge No. 71, A.F. & A.M., will be in charge. Interment will be in Walnut Hill Cemetery. Pallbearers will be chosen from the scores of friends of Mr. Froom at the Union Pacific Railway Headquarters in Omaha.