Robert Louis Bloom (1911 - 1990)

Born 12 Aug 1911 in Hot Springs, Garland, Arkansas, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Dorothy Chandler (Stuart) Bloom — married 26 Feb 1945 in Washington, D. C.

Descendants

Died 15 Oct 1990 at age 79 in Gettysburg, Adams, Pennsylvania, United States

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Biography

Robert Louis Bloom was born at Hot Springs, Arkansas, on 12 Aug 1911, the son of Louis Ellsworth Bloom and Esther May (Killingsworth) Bloom.

He attended school in Hot Springs. In 1928, his parents moved from Hot Springs to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where Robert graduated from Carlisle High School in 1930. He attended Dickinson College for one year, and he then transferred to Shippensburg State Teachers College (now Shippensburg University), from which he graduated in 1935.

After graduating from college, Robert Bloom lived at Tyrone, Pennsylvania, where he taught history and geography in junior high school. From his father's death in 1936, his mother lived with him at 1370 Logan Avenue in Tyrone, and his Army enlistment record shows that he had one dependent. He commuted to North Carolina in the summer months, where he earned a master's degree in history from Duke University.

Robert Bloom was drafted into the United States Army Air Corps during World War II and entered the service on 4 Nov 1942. He served as a land-based radio operator in North Africa, Sardinia, and Italy. He later was transferred to Oakland, California. He was discharged as a Tech Sergeant in 1945.

Robert Louis Bloom married Dorothy Chandler Stuart at Washington, D. C., on 26 Feb 1945.

After the war, Robert and Dorothy Bloom moved to Long Branch, New Jersey, where they lived with Robert's mother and Robert taught history at Monmouth Junior College (now Monmouth University). He taught night classes, and during the day he commuted into New York City, where he studied for his doctoral degree in history with Allan Nevins. He was awarded the Ph.D. degree in the early 1950s, after the completion of his dissertation on the history of the Philadelphia North American newspaper.

The first of their three sons was born in Long Branch in 1946. In 1949, Robert Bloom accepted a position in the History Department of Gettysburg College, where he taught for 32 years, served as chairman of the department from 1958 to 1968, and retired as a full professor in 1981. He received an award for teaching excellence in 1980. In the summers, he organized and ran a series of Civil War study groups on the Gettysburg campus. He served as the president of the Pennsylvania Historical Association.

Robert and Dorothy's second and third sons were born in Gettysburg, in 1950 and 1952. Robert served his local community as vice president of the Adams County Historical Society and on the boards of Historic Gettysburg, the Gettysburg Community Concert Association, the Gettysburg Civil War Round Table, and the Torch Club. He was well known in the community for a number of letters expressing his views on political matters that were published through the years in the Gettysburg Times newspaper.

After his retirement, Robert Bloom was commissioned by the Adams County Historical Society to write a history of Adams County. The book was in press at the time of his death, and it was readied for publication with editorial assistance from his widow. It was published posthumously in 1992 as The History of Adams County, Pennsylvania.

Robert Louis Bloom died from cancer at The Gettysburg Hospital on 15 October 1990. His ashes are buried at Precinct Cemetery in Gettysburg, alongside those of his wife, who died in 2007.

Sources

• Family records in the possession of Stu Bloom for his birth and death; personal recollections of Stu Bloom for the biographical details
• Robert L. Bloom on the Pennsylvania Historical Association website. Note that while he worked on The British Covers the American Civil War, it was never published, contrary to the claim on the website.
• Robert L. Bloom, "We Never Expected a Battle": The Civilians at Gettysburg, 1863," in Pennsylvania History, vol. 55, no. 4, October 1988
• Interview with Dorothy Bloom, May 28, 1993, Gettysburg College collection of oral histories
• Michael J. Birkner, "A Battlefield Jaunt with Professor Robert Bloom," in Gettysburg College History Department Newsletter, volume 18, number 1, Summer 2011, at page 10
• District of Columbia certificate of marriage #277983
• Obituary of Robert L. Bloom, Hanover Evening Sun, 16 Oct 1990, page 4
• Find A Grave: Memorial #59969187 for Robert L. Bloom, with photo of gravestone of Robert L. and Dorothy S. Bloom
• Draft registration of Robert Louis Bloom, in U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, Ancestry Image (subscription required; see Ancestry Sharing Link) > Pennsylvania > Blon-Bloomfield > Blon, Charles-Bloomfield, Joseph > image 1463 of 1933
• Information from application filed on the the death of Robert Louis Bloom, in United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007, database, FamilySearch
• Enlistment record of Robert L. Bloom, in United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, database, FamilySearch > Robert L Bloom, enlisted 04 Nov 1942, Altoona, Pennsylvania, United States; citing "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938-1946," database, The National Archives: Access to Archival Databases (AAD) (http://aad.archives.gov : National Archives and Records Administration, 2002); NARA NAID 1263923, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
• Robert L. Bloom, son, age 8, in the Louis L. (sic) Bloom family, in United States Census, 1920, database with images, FamilySearch > Arkansas > Garland > Hot Springs > ED 73 > household 125 > family 127 > image 11 of 41; citing NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
• Robert Bloom, son, age 28, public school social teacher, in the Esther K. Bloom family, in United States Census, 1940, database with images, FamilySearch > Pennsylvania > Blair > Tyrone Borough, Tyrone, Ward 3 > 7-101 Tyrone Borough Ward 3 bounded by (N) ward line, Lincoln Av, 14th; (E) Pennsylvania Av; (S) 12th; (W) borough limits > household 247 > image 23 of 30; citing Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012.
• Robert L. Bloom family, in United States Census, 1950, database with images >< Family Search > Pennsylvania > Adams > Gettysburg > ED 1-23 > dwelling 97 > image 12 of 26; United States Department of Commerce > Bureau of the Census > 1950 Census of Population and Housing