Robert Blute Obituary, Death Cause – Shrewsbury – Robert D. Blute, Sr., M.D., 95, of Shrewsbury, husband of the late Ann-Marie (Hines) Blute, father of eleven children, former Chief of Urology and President of the Staff at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, and a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, died peacefully at his home on Tuesday, October 25, 2016 surrounded by his loving family after a brief illness.
Born in Salem in 1921, he was the grandson of Irish immigrants who had worked as laborers and in factories throughout the North Shore. The eldest son of Michael and Ethel “Lena” Blute, his family moved to Boston when his father, a World War I veteran, became a Boston Police Officer, and he was educated at St. Peter School in Dorchester. The family, including his sisters Kathleen and Ann, later moved to Roslindale. A stellar student, he went on to matriculate at Boston College High School in the class of 1939 and received an academic scholarship to attend Boston College. Like so many members of the “Greatest Generation,” he was the first in his family to attend college.
A pre-med student and Classics major, he volunteered the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was enlisted in the Army Medical Administrative Corps as a Reserve Second Lieutenant. He was a passionate Eagle who credited the Jesuit education he received at the Heights with his acceptance to Tufts Medical School. “Everything that developed in my life,” he said “started on registration day at Boston College.”
While studying at Tufts Medical School, Dr. Blute’s best friend introduced him to his future wife Ann-Marie Hines of West Roxbury, whom he called “Annie,” and a 66-year love affair began. The War had ended, but Dr. Blute’s service was only just beginning. After accelerated surgical residency training at Boston City Hospital and Brooke Army Medical Base in San Antonio, Texas, he was promoted to Captain, and at the age of 24 was appointed Chief of Surgery in a 250-bed U.S. Army Hospital in Bremerhaven, Germany. When he received orders in August 1947 to report to Germany, he proposed marriage to Ann-Marie. Two weeks later, he and Ann-Marie were married and began what they thought of as a ‘two-year long honeymoon’ in Europe during the Occupation. There, the Blutes had the first of their eleven children.
ncG1vNJzZmidpJq%2Fr63Loaanp6Keu6h6wqikaKqfl7KzwIybo66slWK8o7XTrpirsV2svLOvxKyrnqpdoq5uuMSaqadlnaS%2FpnnAm6aurF2nvKOx0a1km6SlqbJusMSaq6Fn