Peter Brower Bloom, M’62, a former clinical professor of psychiatry at Penn’s School of Medicine and Pennsylvania Hospital, died on September 10, 2022, in Media, Pennsylvania. He was 86.

Born in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Dr. Bloom graduated from Swarthmore High School in 1954, then earned his BA in chemistry from Cornell University in 1958. He then came to Penn, earning a medical degree in 1962 from Penn’s Medical School. During his senior year of medical school and throughout his rotating internship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), his interest in the psychological side of medicine began to develop. His residency at Penn was interrupted in 1963 when he was drafted into the U.S. Navy Medical Corps. He served in Albuquerque, New Mexico on a joint service military base for two years. During his service, Lieutenant Bloom received the Department of Defense’s Joint Service Commendation Medal for organizing Sandia Base Army Hospital’s outpatient clinic, which served 10,000 patients each month.

After his military service, Dr. Bloom finished his medical residency and gastroenterology fellowship at HUP, but then decided to switch gears and enter psychiatry. Dr. Bloom completed his psychiatric residency at the Institute of the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1971 and immediately started his private practice at the institute. When the institute closed in 1997, he moved his office to Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Dr. Bloom was also a preceptor and taught in Penn’s department of psychiatry, becoming a clinical professor of psychiatry in 1992. In 2008, he received Penn’s Annual Award for Clinical Faculty; the award citation mentioned that he was “an outstanding role model for a generation of students and colleagues.”

Dr. Bloom was active in his field, serving as president of the American Board of Medical Hypnosis and the International Society for Hypnosis (ISH), where he was awarded the ISH Pierre Janet Award for Clinical Excellence and the Benjamin Franklin Gold Medal, the highest award of the ISH. He was a fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Dr. Bloom was a foreign member of the Swedish Society for Clinical Hypnosis and an honorary member of many other learned societies. He was on the editorial boards of several clinical journals and published many peer-reviewed chapters and articles.

Dr. Bloom loved travel and music; he was one of the original members of the Sherwoods of Cornell, a twelve man a capella group founded in 1956. He loved camping, canoeing, and sailing, skills he developed as a counselor at Camp Pocono. Dr. Bloom also valued the friendships he made on the golf course at Rolling Green Golf Club. In his community, he participated in Indian Guides, chaperoned school field trips, sang in the Swarthmore Presbyterian Church Choir, coached SRA baseball, and acted in the Swarthmore Nativity Pageant.

He is survived by his wife, Marcia (née Bloser); his children, Kathy (George), Diana (Michael), and David (Jennifer); his grandchildren, Alexis, Madeline (Stefano), Melanie, Anna, Jackson, and Logan; his sister, Barbara; his brother, Fred (Heike); his sister-in-law, Karen (Ray); and nieces and nephews. A celebration of his life was held on October 8, 2022.