James C. O'Flaherty received a Ph.D. from University of Chicago, after studying at the University of Heidelberg, Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, and Georgetown College. He was a founding member of the faculty of Wake Forest University's Department of German, where he spent his entire career from 1947 until his retirement in 1984. Specializing in 18th-century German literature and thought, he was a leading scholar of the German philosopher Johann Georg Hamann. He died on July 27, 2002 at the age of 88.
From the guide to the O'Flaherty, James C. Papers, 1938-2002, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)