Carl Bloom, of Providence, passed away June 1, 2025 at the age of 104. He leaves behind a daughter, Danila Bloom Székely of Newton, MA, his son and daughter-in-law Arvid Bloom and Gretchen Lockwood of Chester Springs, PA, nieces and nephews, and their families. He was predeceased by his two older brothers Max and Julius, and nephew Paul.

Carl was born in Brooklyn and grew up there, in the Bronx, and in Manhattan. His parents were immigrants who escaped the “old country” – his father Borice from Ukraine and his mother Dora (nee Rosenblum) from what is now Belarus. With his older brothers Julius and Max, Carl attended City College of New York, which required a 90% GPA for admission. He majored in Mechanical Engineering, largely because he always loved making things with his hands.

Carl’s first job was with General Electric, where he worked on steam turbines to help Russia in WWII. Carl was a WWII Veteran, and served from 1944 to 1946. In 1944, he was drafted into the Army Air Corps (predecessor to the Air Force), where among several very technical assignments, he serviced electronic remote control machine gun systems for B-29 bombers. These systems required very careful calibration so that the bullets would travel between rapidly spinning propeller blades regardless of engine and air speed. He was almost sent to the Pacific, but the atomic bomb was dropped and the war ended.

After the war, he returned to engineering work at GE in Schenectady, NY, where he met Eleonore Feibes. They married in 1948 and then moved to Springfield, MA. After GE, Carl then worked for Worthington Corporation for nearly 30 years, most of those years in Holyoke, MA. In 1965, Carl won Worthington Corporation’s worldwide Engineer of the Year award. He also enjoyed teaching engineering at night school for 15 years. He retired from Worthington Corporation as a lead engineer in 1985, with 13 compressor-related patents to his credit. He then consulted for several years as an expert witness in fire-related lawsuits involving compressors.

This work moved Carl to write an extensively researched article on “Fires in Compressors,” with a plea to compressor manufacturers to include the risk in instruction manuals; he sent the article to the head of the industry organization in the hopes of saving lives.

After divorce, in 1983 he married Blanche Roth of Greenville, RI, where they lived on the lake. They enjoyed traveling and participating in courses in the Providence, RI Lifelong Learning Community. Carl took great pleasure in preparing for these collaborative courses, and was instrumental in growing the membership base. During this time, he wrote poetry and many short stories, some autobiographical.

In 2002, Carl and Blanche moved to The Highlands on the East Side, a senior and assisted living community in Providence, RI. There, Carl organized “My Favorites” monthly programs for residents, celebrating their favorite music and other arts. After Blanche’s passing in 2005, he resumed taking lifelong learning courses, with a particular fondness for poetry. He found fulfillment in family and a daily pursuit of learning new things, helping others, reading short stories, and sharing Yiddish stories. As a “Renaissance Man,” Carl enjoyed a number of other interests, including inventing, woodworking, photography, creating jewelry, and listening to classical music.

Memorial contributions to honor Carl’s love for learning may be made to the Lifelong Learning Collaborative (LLC, formerly BCLIR), P.O. Box 2772, Attleboro, MA 02703.