Allan Ira Bloom, M.D.

SEPTEMBER 13th, 1918 – MARCH 24th, 2015

Allan Ira Bloom, a beloved husband, father and physician, passed away peacefully at home after a brief illness at the age of 96. He was born September 13, 1918 in Brooklyn, New York and died on March 24, 2015. Allan is survived by his children, Stephen, Karen, Randi, Rexford, Jonathan, Adam, Duff and Drew. He also leaves behind eleven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first wife Natalie Levee Bloom, his second wife Wilma “Billie” Morgan Bloom, his son Peter, his daughter Amy, and his daughter-in-law Rebecca.

Allan was born to Benjamin Jerome and Lillian Freedman Bloom in 1918, joining his older sister, Sylvia. When his sister contracted polio in 1927, Allan’s deep passion for medicine was strengthened. Over the months that Sylvia was hospitalized, Allan spent many days in the hospital observing the doctors and the hospital staff as his admiration of the medical field flourished.

After graduating from Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York in 1936, Allan attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Allan was active in establishing the Fencing Program at UNC, was its Captain for all four years, winning many accolades and awards; and he also coached the Women’s Fencing Team. He was selected to the 1940 Olympic Fencing Team but, due to WW II, no Olympics were held. Graduating from UNC with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in June of 1940, he attended post-graduate school in both Pennsylvania and Massachusetts in preparation for achieving his long-held goal of attending medical school and becoming a doctor. This goal was interrupted by the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States entering WWII.

In October of 1943, he was sworn into the Navy in Los Angeles, California and attended the 90-Day Midshipmen’s School V-7 Program at Northwestern University in Chicago. While he was in training in San Diego, he met his first wife Natalie on a blind date, and they married in 1944.

Until his release from the Navy in 1946, he served on the USS Sevier as the Amphibious Forces Boat Officer. During this period, he participated in the assault on the Marianas with the Third and Fourth Marine Divisions, the Invasion of Iwo Jima with the Fourth Marines, the Battle of Okinawa, and made the initial landing at Sasebo Bay, Japan, with the Fifth Marine Division.

Among the citations he received from the US Navy were the Presidential Unit Citation (Iwo Jima), Meritorious Service Medal, American Defense Medal, American Campaign Medal, Japanese Occupation Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Medal with Three Stars, WW II Victory Medal, Philippine Liberation Medal, and the China War Memorial Medal.

Following the end of the war, then Lieutenant Bloom was assigned to the Naval Station, Long Beach, California, where he was later released from active duty. In September 1946, Allan entered Medical School at the University of California, Berkeley. While in Medical School, his son Stephen and daughter Karen were born. After graduating in 1950, he moved his young family to Los Angeles where he completed his residency at Cedars of Lebanon (now known as Cedars Sinai).

In the ensuing years, the Bloom family expanded exponentially. Peter was born in 1952, but he did not survive. Two years later, Jonathan was born. Tragically, in 1958, Allan was widowed when Natalie died from cancer. When he married Billie in 1959, the family immediately grew to five children with the addition of Billie’s two children, Randi and Rex. Not content to stop at five, Allan and Billie added Adam, Duff, and Drew to the brood; Adam in 1960, Duff in 1961, and Drew in 1965. Amy, Adam’s twin, did not survive.

Throughout the ensuing years, Allan nurtured and enjoyed a successful private medical practice in Encino, California. During this time, Allan was elected to several terms as Chief of Staff at West Valley Hospital. In 1974, a unique set of circumstances introduced Allan to a military program aimed at recruiting medical doctors. He investigated the program and decided that this was just what he needed; he re-joined the Navy as a Medical Officer (Captain) in 1975 and he and Billie never looked back.

He reported for active duty at the Naval Dispensary Sand Point in Seattle in March 1975 and served on active duty practicing medicine until his release from the Navy in August 1984. After his Naval medical career, he resumed a private medical practice at Providence in Bellevue, Washington, until his final retirement in 1992. Throughout his long medical career, he translated his love of medicine and serving others by teaching Family Medicine at the Schools of Medicine at UCLA and University of Washington.

Like everyone else, Allan had happiness and sorrow, good times and bad, but overall, he had a wonderful, interesting, successful, long and honorable life.

Allan will forever be remembered by those that had the great pleasure of knowing him. His dear friends and loving family knew him as a caring, brilliant physician and beloved husband, father and friend; Allan was greatly loved by his patients, and highly respected by his colleagues and all who came in contact with him. Our family is feeling the sad loss of our father, but has the gift of wonderful memories and the legacy that he left behind that impacts each of us.

As Allan requested, there will be no formal services. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society and/or Evergreen Hospice Services.