Robert Martin Glassman

1940 - 2023

Robert Martin Glassman
Robert Martin Glassman, born April 7, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York, died June 8 at Masonicare in Wallingford, Connecticut. Bob, the son of Charles and Sylvia Glassman, grew up in Brooklyn and then Jamaica Estates, New York. As a young man he attended high school at Milford Academy, where he learned to sail and developed a lifelong passion for boats, boating, and all things nautical. After graduation he attended Pennsylvania Military College (now Widener University) and then, following in his father's footsteps, went to medical school at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. While in Scotland he met and married his wife of fifty-four years, Kathleen Birnie. During his time in Scotland, he developed a great appreciation for the culture and history of the country, and a lifelong appreciation of single malt Scotch whisky.
When he finished with medical school, Bob and Kathy moved to Long Island, New York where he did his medical internship and residency at Meadowbrook Hospital (now Nassau County Medical Center). He then started at Yale New Haven Hospital as an anesthesiologist and after three years moved to Waterbury Anesthesiology Associates, spending the duration of his career covering both Waterbury and Saint Mary's Hospitals. He was known by all the nurses and support staff at the hospitals to always be a friendly face and willing to be of service.
Bob, having a passion for sailing, would spend summer family vacations aboard BON ACCORD sailing the waters of New England. A blue water sailor as well, he made many trips to Bermuda, two transatlantic voyages, and sailed across a large part of the Pacific. Following his retirement, he and Kathy lived aboard BON ACCORD sailing the Leeward Islands in the Eastern Caribbean for ten years. He also enjoyed SCUBA diving, was an avid skier, and celebrated his seventy-fifth birthday by going skydiving.
Bob volunteered in the community, serving as Assistant Scoutmaster and then Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 41 at Congregation B'nai Jacob in Woodbridge, continuing for several years after on the Troop Committee. He later served many years as a Mate and "Boat Captain" with Sea Scout Ship 1 in New Haven, teaching youth and imparting his love and knowledge of sailing, navigation and all things nautical. He was known as "Captain Bob" by them and by many in the younger generations of the family. He also spent several summers serving as the medical officer on the staff of the Connecticut Yankee Council's Cub Scout Resident Camp at Deer Lake Scout Reservation and for the council's National Youth Leadership Training Course at Camp Pomperaug and at Deer Lake, known by those at those programs as "Dr. Bob". Bob also loved reading and enjoyed volunteering with the Jewish Coalition for Literacy, working with New Haven school children to improve their reading skills.
In addition to his wife Kathleen and sons Jonathan and Joel, and daughters-in-law Jessica and Michele, Bob is survived by his grandchildren Adam, Benjamin, Seth, Sophie, Taylor and Ryan, his sister and brother-in-law Lillian and John Resnik, brother-in-law and sister-in-law Ronald and Patricia Birnie, nieces and nephews Peter Resnik, Emily Resnik Conn, Mark Birnie and Karen Brownlee.
A funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 11 at the Robert E. Shure & Son Funeral Home, 543 George Street, New Haven, Connecticut. Friends may start arriving to the funeral home as of 9:00 a.m. to greet Bob's family. A private interment will follow immediately after at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York. The family will observe Shiva and will welcome visitors on Monday, June 12 at the house of Jonathan and Jessica Glassman, and on Tuesday, June 13 at the house of Joel and Michele Glassman, both evenings starting at 6:30 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, donations to may be made in Bob's memory to the Connecticut Yankee Council, Boy Scouts of America's Quinnipiac District or to World Central Kitchen.