WILLIAM LEO BLOOM, JR.      

This document is intended to relate portions of my life experiences.  I will begin with my mother's family: Her name was Marie Elizabeth Reed.  She was born June 10, 1894.  She married my father October 1, 1919, and died January 2, 1974.  Her father was James Byron Reed who married her mother, Elizabeth Gruenjes, in 1891.  My grandparents lived in Burlington, Iowa, and, in conjunction with my grandmother's sister, they ran a boarding house. At that time room and board was $7.00 a week.

My mother was quite active in the Bethany Lutheran Church choir, singing in it for many, many years.  She also sang at many funerals.  Most of her life she was a housewife, taking care of me.  I was the only child. My mother had one sister, Laura, who married Harry Ryden and they lived in Des Moines their entire married life. I often visited them in Des Moines during the summer, being with my two cousins, Dick and Janet.  They were like a brother and sister to me. My father, William Leo Bloom, was born April 22, 1891, and died February 3, 1967.  His father's name was Charles and his mother's name Louisa (pronounced with a long "i". He was born in 1864 and died in 1942.  There were two sisters, Mabel Bloom, who died at the age of 18 in 1917 of purpura hemorrhagica.  There was another sister, Blanche, who married a Methodist minister, Elmer Peterson.  They adopted a daughter, Phyllis. Blanche died in the late 1960s.

My father obtained a job with the CB&Q railroad at their shops in West Burlington, Iowa. He became a master mechanic but unfortunately went out on strike in about 1920 and never returned to that job.  This caused many ''hard feelings" within the family and with others who had been friends.

From then on he never really had what we would call a "good" job.  We were severely hit by the depression and lived for many years hand to mouth, with my father being out of work totally for one period of nine months.  There were no such things as food stamps or governmental assistance and we were provided for through relatives and his odd jobs.  During this time, it was necessary that I have orthodontic work at a cost of $200, which my father earned carrying coal at 50¢ per ton.

Prior to the closing of the banks during the Depression, my folks were warned of this possibility, did not believe it and did not take their money from the bank.  My father's last job was with the J.I. Case Company.

The Depression period left a profound impression on my mind, which I retain today.  It left me with the fear that such a period may recur and the fear that this country will become violent.  People of today expect a hand-out and would expect to be taken care of   But who would take care of them?

I was born February 16, 1921, and was educated in the Burlington school system.  Grade school consisted of kindergarten, which I entered when I was close to six, through 8th grade.  In those years teachers were mostly "old maids" or widowers. Female teachers were not permitted to be married.  There was no such thing as "women's rights" then.  My teachers' lives were dedicated to teaching their students.  They taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, and everyone could read well before they were eight years old.

While I was in grade school, the middle school/ junior high concept was introduced and two middle schools were built in Burlington during the Depression.  I attended Horace Mann Junior High School and hated it, perhaps due to the distance I had to travel.  School busing did not exist.  I walked or rode my bike, but weather did not permit using the bicycle all the time.

After junior high I attended Burlington High School which I "loved."  I thoroughly enjoyed my high school education and again was blessed with dedicated teachers using chalk, blackboard and textbooks.  One may gather from this that I am a firm believer in schooling of the old type, believing that modern technology, such as computers, is being introduced to students far too early.

After high school, work was not available due to the continuing Depression and I went on to Burlington Junior College.  I worked in the school building during the summers, washing walls, woodwork, floors and bathrooms to earn my tuition.  The junior college was in the same building as the high school and many of the instructors were the same.  Courses were elective and I took, basically, pre-engineering courses.

During the late 1930s, it became apparent that the United States would go to war against Germany. In view of this, a college course in aviation was introduced.  I enrolled in this course, learned to fly and obtained a pilot's license in 1941.  We flew a Piper J-3 Cub, a small, single­ engine airplane.  I had a pilot's license prior to a license to drive an automobile.  My parents never owned an automobile.  

After junior college I became a draftsman for the Murray Iron Works in Burlington.  I still retained my interest in aviation and, after Pearl Harbor, endeavored to join the Army Air Corps, the Marine Air Corps, and the Navy Air Corps.  I passed the examinations in all instances except the physical. In the first portion of the physical you had to be weighed.  I weighed 116 pounds and was rejected immediately by all services.  Many of my buddies passed the physical, learned to fly bombers or fighters and were killed in World War II.

After discharge from the Army, I was asked by the Captain I worked for in the Army to join him with General Electric X-Ray in Chicago.  Several of the instructors, who, incidentally, were non-commissioned officers, joined GE.  My rank at discharge was Technical Sergeant.

At GE., we began one and one /half year training in physical therapy equipment usage. The ultimate intent was that we teach hospital personnel, doctors and physical therapists how to best utilize General Electric physical therapy equipment. This teaching assignment began in 1948 and almost immediately terminated due to a recession period.  I transferred to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where General Electric X-Ray took over a new plant and established their headquarters. My work was as an instructor to teach company employees the usage of our physical therapy equipment and expanded to include X-Ray equipment.  There were ups and downs again, due to the economy at that time.

It became important to minimize classroom training costs and I became involved in writing.  My writing project, of which I am most proud, was editing a book Medical Radiography Technique, which was published by Charles C. Thomas of Springfield, Illinois. This book was intended to be used by X-Ray technicians and thousands of copies were sold.  That project took me approximately a year and a half to complete.  Two other publications include Image Intensification and Recording Principles and High Tension Generation and Its Use in Radiography.

A challenging opportunity was to teach "Effective Presentation", a GE course similar to the Dale Carnegie speaking course. After training, I taught this subject for many years.  The course was conducted weekly for twelve weeks, and I received extra compensation for this activity.

Over the years I had many opportunities to attend conferences, meetings and seminars at numerous "plush" re8orts and in many cities.  I also gave talks to X-ray technicians, our sales and service personnel and hospital groups.  I enjoyed the travel and the places I visited.

In 1970, during an interview for a higher position which included running the entire sales and servicemen training program for X-ray, I somehow made a bad impression on the interviewer to the point that my friends told me to accept a position that was open as Commercial Manager in Denver, Colorado. After discussion with Gertie, I accepted this transfer from Milwaukee to Denver as Commercial Manager, being in charge of all buildings, grounds, secretarial, office, and inventory, accounts payable and receivable, warehousing, and associated personnel.  Our area included Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, portions of Nevada,  Idaho and, at one time, Arizona.  We had offices in Denver, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and Boise.  There were 16 commercial employees, who reported to me, scattered through these offices.  I traveled extensively to these offices.

General Electric was one of the first companies to downsize through the elimination of middle management.  Our Medical Systems Operations, as it came to be known, was no exception.  Downsizing began in Milwaukee and started to move out into field offices, such as ours.  Middle management was offered packages to retire or told to seek employment elsewhere. Being 64 years old at the time, I was lucky and could readily accept the package and retire in 1985.

Prior to discussing my retirement I would like to review our church affiliations up to my retirement.  In Milwaukee we were quite active in the Cleveland Avenue United Presbyterian Church, where Gertie sang in the choir and I was usually on the Session or Trustees.  In Denver, we joined the Wilshire Presbyterian Church where, again, Gertie was a choir member and active in all the women’s organizations.  Again I was on the various governing bodies of Wilshire for many years.

Our friends in Denver thought we were nuts that we were going to retire in Osceola, Iowa.  They had never heard of Osceola, Iowa and thought that we should retire in Sun City, Arizona, or Florida or other good places they had in mind. We knew Osceola, as Gertie's folks had lived here for years.  She was raised in Osceola.  Her sister, Lula Gonseth (Mrs. Morris), lives here on a farm; another sister, who is now deceased, lived in Creston, and her brother was here at one time.  We were also tired of life in big cities.

I joined Rotary, the Economic Development Corporation and was elected to the Board. Bayard Shadley asked me to run for City Council, which I did, was elected and have hopefully been able, because of my business experience, to make a contribution to the Council and their activities.  We joined the Osceola United Methodist Church here and were reasonably active until Gertie’s illness.

We traveled extensively after moving to Osceola, visiting California and Pennsylvania. Bus tours were very enjoyable and we made a number of them with Ethel Tangeman, Shirley Woods and Don Butterfield.

I saved the best to the last- my family. I met Gertie in July of 1942 when we both happened to be aboard the Mississippi Riverboat President on a moonlight excursion cruise.  We were introduced by a mutual friend and one might say it was love at first sight. Gertie had moved to Burlington from Osceola to join her parents since her father had left his taxi-cab business here in Osceola to join the Guard Force at the huge Burlington Ordinance Plant.  She left all of her Osceola classmates, most of whom she had been with since kindergarten, to join her folks in Burlington due to being lonely without them.  She finished her senior year in high school there and had graduated from Burlington High School in the spring of 1942. After high school
graduation, she worked for the telephone company in Burlington.

We enjoyed St. Louis.  Since the war was at its height, anyone wearing a uniform was treated extremely well.  Theater tickets and baseball tickets were free to servicemen and, usually, the cost was 25¢ for the wife.  Gertie worked making fuses for shells and was promoted to a supervisory position at the plant where she worked.  I taught and had essentially an eight-hour, five-day week with Saturday mornings devoted to student tests.

After the end of World War II, the plant where Gertie worked closed, the school where I taught was going to move to San Antonio, Texas, and was offered an opportunity to move or be discharged from the Army.  I took the Army discharge and joined General Electric in Chicago. My folks were disappointed that we did not come to live with them in Burlington but we did not care to do that, wanting to be on our own. Through some mutual friends in Chicago we found a basement apartment with living room, bedroom, kitchen and bath.  It was just what we needed and we were very fortunate to find it since housing was extremely difficult to obtain.

Gertie did not work in Chicago and began my training.  GE outgrew the Chicago facility and bought an empty war plant in Milwaukee where we moved in 1948.  While in Chicago, Gertie became pregnant with our first son, Jim. We were again very fortunate to find an apartment in Milwaukee.  This was upstairs with two bedrooms, one of which we reserved for the unborn child.

Jim was born in 1948 and is a son to be proud of.  We decided that we wanted a home of our own so, in 1950, purchased a small two-bedroom home on 92nd Street for $10,200, which sounds like little but was a fair amount of money in those days.  We had saved our money while I was in the Army and Gertie had worked; we, therefore, had the down payment as well as enough to buy a new 1950 Chevy.

Jim was born while we were in the apartment, prior to our move to our own home.  Gertie became pregnant for the second time and another delightful son, John, was born in 1952. In 1954 we bought our second home which was across the street from our first home on 92nd street.

Jim started school while we were on 92nd street.  Our area was annexed into the city of Milwaukee.  In the meantime, John was born and the four of us lived in our second Milwaukee home where we remodeled the basement and made other improvements. Milwaukee built a new grade school quite near us and both boys went to this grade school.  In 1960 we built a home on
89th street out of what was called split rock, a beautiful home that we intended to be our permanent home.  Here, too, I remodeled the basement into a recreation room.

We were active in church, Cub Scouts - Gertie was Den Mother - Boy Scouts, and the PTA (Parent/Teachers’ Association). The boys played the violin and piano and became quite proficient at both.  They were both in the high school orchestra and in what were called accelerated classes.

We made and left many friends in the Milwaukee area when Gertie and I moved to Denver in 1970.  Jim's advisors had suggested that he attend a small college and, upon visitation at Grinnell College, he decided to enroll there.  John also preferred Grinnell and graduated from that college. The boys considered, and still do, Milwaukee as home.  Jim went to Grinnell in 1966, John to Grinnell in 1970.  They never considered Denver as home since both were in college when we moved there.

After Grinnell Jim went to Ames, Iowa State University, receiving a Master's in Physics there.  He also met his future wife, Rose.  After his Master's, Jim went to Michigan, Ann Arbor, obtaining a Ph.D. in biophysics. He and Rose were married during this time frame and, after Ann Arbor, Jim went to the Mayo Clinic to do post-doctoral work in the hematology area for threeyears.  We thought then, and still do, that it was a very high honor for Jim to be selected for post­ doctoral work at Mayo Clinic.

After Mayo Jim worked for Armour Pharmaceutical as Research Scientist for about five years and then went to Oakland, California, where he worked for Bayer, and still does, as a Research Scientist developing pharmaceuticals.  Jim and Rose have two beautiful daughters, Emily the older at seven and Catherine the younger at four.

John met Claudia, his wife-to-be, while at Grinnell. He went to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he received a Master’s in Physics and a Ph.D. in biophysics, the same as his brother.  While there he became very active in a small church and, based upon his minister's recommendation, went to Philadelphia to Biblical Theology Seminary.

At that time John and Claudia were married.  They both went to the seminary, both graduating; but they were never ordained. During his Biblical studies, John became very interested in Greek, Hebrew and other ancient far-eastern languages. Consequently, he continued his studies in these areas at Dropsie College (University of Pennsylvania) and, after a number of years, received a Ph.D. in far-eastern languages.

John's goal was to teach far-eastern language in a small Christian college. He obtained an associate professorship at BIOLA in LaMirada, California. There were no openings in the School of Religion, so he teaches physics.  Their son, David, is now six years old and is an active youngster as one would expect.

Both of our daughters-in-law have college degrees.  Rose, a B.S. in Physics and a Master's in Nuclear Physics; Claudia a B.S. in Math, a Master's in Library Science and a Master's in Divinity from Biblical Theology Seminary.

I'd like to conclude this with a brief explanation of Gertie's illness. In December, 1991, while in Philadelphia, Gertie lifted grandson David and thought she strained a muscle in her back. After returning to Osceola, our family doctor in Des Moines also thought she had strained a back muscle. He prescribed therapy and exercises.  Mike Schinzel, therapist at Clarke County Hospital, thought there was something more seriously wrong and our family doctor sent us to an osteoporosis specialist in Des Moines.  He determined that Gertie had some collapsed vertebrae and had her begin taking injections to prevent further calcium loss.

The pain became so severe that Gertie was placed in Iowa Lutheran Hospital, and, after a bone marrow biopsy, an oncologist was called in.  The specimen was reviewed by four pathologists.  Two said she had multiple myeloma, one said "no" and the other said he didn't know what it was.  The decision was made to send the specimen to Mayo Clinic.

In the meantime, one of the doctors came into the hospital room and very bluntly told Gertie and me that she had multiple myeloma. They started chemotherapy.  In  the meantime our doctor, who had been on vacation, came back, reviewed the situation, and became angry that the two doctors had never reviewed her file from years ago, which indicated that she has an unusual white blood count.  Mayo Clinic reported that Gertie did not have multiple myeloma.  This all took a week during which time we both prayed constantly.

Gertie came home, was confined to bed for over a year, during which time we depended entirely upon our outstanding county nurse group, particularly Sandy Eddy, to bathe and assist as much as possible, and the Senior Center for meals. At all times Gertie was in extreme pain and still is.  She ultimately went to Iowa City where they fitted her with a brace so that she cannotbend or twist.  She must wear the brace at all times except when she is in bed. In addition, a 72- hour pain patch was prescribed.

She has seven collapsed vertebrae, has gone from 5'6" to 5'0" in height, is in continual pain and continues to take a class two narcotic. She cannot sit for a long period, cannot go to church or participate in any of her former activities; but we thank the Lord that she is as well as she currently is.

We thank the friends and neighbor friends for their plants, visits, food and prayers.  In conclusion, I want to thank Fern Underwood for her time in compiling this biographical information; also for her hospitality and for the contribution of her time and talent to our church and our community.  To those reading this, I trust it is as interesting to read as it has been for me to live.

WLB
3/6/97

LOVE ABOUNDS
WLB

Love abounds in that early day
Life stretches ahead without a care
Marriage takes place as that's the way
A child is expected you become aware.

Love abounds as child two is due
Life is joyful and seems mostly sweet
Marriage matures with days passing as if they flew
The little ones struggle up on their feet.

Love abounds as children enter school
Life moves on as the family becomes mature
Marriage continues largely by The Golden Rule
Little ones grow and become of large stature.

Love abounds as children leave for college
Life changes with fewer in the nest
Marriage abides as all gain in knowledge
Young adults gain importance above the rest.

Love abounds as daughters-in-law are wed
Life seems strange as time goes by
Marriage vows and paths the younger tred
They leave for good their wings to try.

Love abounds as retirement comes to pass
Life takes on more years of time
Marriage finds an old couple not saying "Alas"
They know all cannot be sublime.

Love abounds for those remaining years
Life will eventually be above
Marriage must someday be broken by tears
Sustained through time by abounding love.

Return to main page for Recipes for Living 1997 by Fern Underwood

Last Revised May 7, 2012