Kurt Richard Bloom

Kurt Richard Bloom Bursting into the world on August 1, 1965, in Peoria, IL, Kurt Bloom enjoyed a fairly average youth and childhood. To our knowledge, he only drank one bottle of Bird of Paradise perfume. In junior high, he tolerated trombone classes, but not for long. By high school, however, he and his friend, Kris Hagen, started playing the guitar, and music began to weave its seductive spell upon his immortal soul. In 1983, after a few years of wandering the high school halls, Kurt was able to convince the Indianola Board of Education that he had enough credits and had attended more than his share of school days for them to grant him a high school diploma. Rather than jump right back into school at the end of the summer of ’83, Kurt decided to see what was going on in the rest of the world. After stumbling through a few adventures, he enrolled in college. For Kurt, Modern Civilization just didn’t have the provocative melodrama of the pharaohs and ancient kings nor the tomfoolery of the peasants, strolling musicians, and prattling philosophers, so he decided to pursue a degree in the highly marketable area of Ancient Civilizations. Apparently, he learned enough by 1990 that the University of Iowa sent him on his merry way back into the world with a Bachelors of Art. Shortly, thereafter, he meandered his way to Minneapolis, wandered around the beautiful parks and lakes and thought, “Hey, I can work here,” and, eventually, began working in Informational Technology with the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board. For 19 years, he was blessed with a ton of work (completely unrelated to Ancient Civilizations—Minneapolis folks, after all, are quite civilized and contemporary, thank you very much) and was surround by amazing co-workers. As a result of his ambling enterprises after school and his classical sojourns in college, Kurt began filling his home with an extensive eclectic collection of books to satiate his curious intellect. Topics ranged from music history and musical instruments; civilizations and history; biographies of historical and cultural personalities, songwriters, musicians; philosophy and religion; novels; and ancient and modern classics. Kurt enjoyed tooling around the Twin Cities on both his Harley-Davidson and Moto Guzzi—but not at the same time. His passion, however, became music and particularly guitars. He began collecting guitars and amps/speakers. Kurt built his own guitar, driving to the family farm in Iowa to work with his Dad, cutting out the guitar body and building the cases for amps. Kurt also played the standup bass and played at the piano and organ. He played with several groups: Geezers, The Same, The D-Days, and Schoolboy Howler. In later years, Kurt rocked his home and the surrounding neighbors jamming with fellow rockers and friends on Fridays and Saturdays. Two years ago, at the age of 50, Kurt was diagnosed with cancer. He was told he wouldn’t be long for this world, but Kurt wasn’t done with the world yet. He had a few more miles to go before he slept. On February 18, 2018, after two years of street brawling with his cancer and fighting tooth and nail, Kurt passed away at his home surrounded by family and friends. Kurt is survived by his parents, Max and Carolyn Bloom, and four siblings: Mitzi Coffman and husband Jeff of Lincoln, NE; Lisa Bloom and husband Mike Swain of Lawton, OK; Todd Bloom and wife Katy of Tacoma, WA; Jodi Barclay and husband Robert of Racine, WS; and two younger brother-cousins Jesse and Eddie Arnold. Kurt also enjoyed being a part of the lives of his nieces and nephews: Jared, Jill, Hannah, Andrew, Maximilian, Ian, Noah, Grant, and Genevieve, as well as several uncles, aunts, and cousins, and a menagerie of fabulous and funny-loving friends. In lieu of flowers, the family would prefer donations be made to the hospice that provided loving care to Kurt during his last few weeks at Fairview.org/giving.

Tributes

Kurt Richard Bloom

February 18, 2018

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