DR. BARRY MALCOLM BLOOM

BLOOM, Dr. Barry Malcolm Former Executive Vice President of Research and Development at Pfizer Inc., died on August 25. He was 90 years old.

In his forty-year career at Pfizer, Bloom rose from Research Chemist to Executive Vice President of Research and Development. By his retirement in 1993, Bloom was instrumental in shaping Pfizer's build-up into one of the world's leading pharmaceutical research organizations. Late Pfizer Chairman, President and CEO Jack Powers had reflected, "one of the reasons I decided to go worldwide with the research effort (at Pfizer) was Barry Bloom himself, he (was) just an extraordinary person. He was ideal-the scientist, the intellectual, but also a very human person".

Bloom was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts to Morris and Ann (Levine) Bloom, and raised in Sanford, Maine by his beloved aunt and uncle Doris and Bernard Cole. He knew from a very young age that he wanted to be a chemist, and entered MIT immediately upon graduating from high school.

At MIT he forged close relationships with lab partners Gerald Laubach and (Nobel Laureate) E. J. Corey, under the guidance of Professor John Sheehan, renowned for his pioneering work in synthesizing penicillin. Bloom received an S.B. and Ph.D from MIT, and was a National Research Council Post Doctoral Fellow at The University of Wisconsin.

Bloom was Division Chairman of the American Chemical Society, founding member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, member of the United States Congressional Commission on the Federal Drug Approval Process, member Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association Commission on Drugs for Rare Diseases, Director at Pfizer Inc., Southern New England Telephone Company, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., Neurogen Corporation, Catalytica Pharmaceuticals, Cubist Pharmaceuticals Inc., Incyte Pharmaceuticals, Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, Connecticut Business and Industry Association. Bloom was Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Connecticut College, and member of both the MIT Corporate and University of Connecticut Visiting Committees.

Bloom held a lifelong passion for music, and played trombone for the Sanford, Maine Town Concert Band, as well as the MIT Dance Band. His love for hiking and outdoor adventure lead to his fellowship with the "Jackson Heights Boys Club", a group of young bachelors from Pfizer Brooklyn, who regularly took trips to the White Mountains in their 1939 Packard hearse. Bloom also held an interest in wine which lead him to accept an invitation to the Confr?rie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.

Above all, he cherished his beloved wife Joan. Together they cultivated a beautiful home in Lyme, CT, where they raised three children and shared their life with family and friends, during their 50 years of marriage.

Dr. Bloom was predeceased by his wife Joan (Ensign) Bloom and uncle Hyman Bloom. He is survived by his three children, Catherine Bloom (Peter Dromgoole) of Portland, ME, Brian Bloom (Michele Bloom), of Colchester, CT, and Joanna Bloom (Thomas Orr) of Portland, OR, his Aunt Stella Bloom of Nashua, NH, granddaughter Lucia Orr of Portland, OR and three half siblings.

A funeral service will be held on Thursday, August 30, 2018 at 11:00 AM at Fulton-Theroux Funeral Home, 13 Beckwith Ln., Old Lyme, CT 06371. Family will receive relatives and friends one hour prior to the service from 10 until 11 AM. Burial will follow in 8 Mile River Cemetery, Lyme.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the Hospice Unit of Middlesex Hospital at Middlesex Hospital, Office of Philanthropy, 28 Crescent St., Middletown, CT 06457.