Kim Flottum –
Peter ‘Kim’ Flottum, 76, passed away Sunday December 10, 2023, at home in Medina, Ohio after a short battle with cancer. He was the son of the late Arnold and Edna Flottum of Turtle Lake, Wisconsin.
He served as editor of Bee Culture magazine for 33 years, retiring in 2019. His wife, Kathy worked along side him for the majority of those years at Bee Culture. He authored numerous beekeeping books and hosted podcasts, with Jim Tew and Jeff Ott. Kim visited and gave bee talks in all of the 48 contiguous states. He spent almost half of his life teaching and loving beekeepers and beekeeping.
Kim received his bachelor’s degree in horticulture from the University of Wisconsin and then worked as a researcher at the USDA Honey Bee Research Lab in Madison, where he specialized in crop pollination, pesticide problems with honey bees, and “honey plants” for the home landscape.
His career took him to Connecticut. He was elected president of Connecticut Beekeepers’ Association. While service as publications manager and editor of Bee Culture, he created a new magazine, BEEKeeping, Your First Three Years. Kim was the Chairman of the Eastern Apicultural Society. president of the Ohio State Beekeepers’ Association and president of the Medina County Beekeepers Association. He continued to keep bees in his backyard in Medina up until his death.
His passion for bees, his wisdom about all things bees, his generosity, and his kindness, will never be forgotten. We are fortunate that we can still hear his voice and see his talks thanks to the technology that we have today. He’s out there everywhere.
Kim is survived by his wife and partner in every respect, Kathy Summers of Medina; daughter Jessica Flottum (Matt Barcus) of Akron, OH; stepsons Grant Summers, Medina and Matt (Christina) Summers, Medina; siblings Julie Hugg, Ashland, WI; Bob Flottum (Carrie), Chippewa Falls, WI; Sue Flottum-Zurcher (Dave), Wales, WI and Tom Flottum (Linda) of Turtle Lake, WI.
A celebration to honor Kim’s life will be held in the Spring in Medina. Please watch these pages for the date. We want to honor him for the special guy that he was and is. We hope many of you can be here for the celebration.
