In Memory of

Lois

Blum

Feinblatt

(nee

Hoffberger)

Obituary for Lois Blum Feinblatt (nee Hoffberger)

Lois B. Feinblatt of Baltimore, Maryland passed away on April 15, 2022. She was predeceased by her loving husbands Irving Blum (d.1973) and Eugene Feinblatt (d.1998). She is survived by her children and their partners, Lawrence Blum and Judith Smith, Jeffrey Blum and Ellen Cassedy and Carolyn (Patty) Blum and Harry Chotiner; her step-children and their partners, Eric Feinblatt and Caroline Baillie, and John Feinblatt and Jonathan Mintz, and Margaret (Peg) Cohen, who Lois loved like a daughter, and Ron Cohen. She was loved dearly by her grandchildren and their partners, Benjamin Blum-Smith and Diane Henry, Sarah Blum-Smith and Andrew Hannon, Laura Blum-Smith and Edward Underhill, Alicia Blum-Ross and Paul (Shez) Sherreard, Isaac Chotiner and Ridhi Tariyal, Natalie Blum-Ross and Eric Owens, Timothy and Hannah Cassedy, Margaret and Kamar Samuels, Jeremie Feinblatt and Helga Hitko, Eve Feinblatt and Samuel Denantes, Micah Feinblatt, Maeve Feinblatt and Georgia Feinblatt. She was thrilled with the arrival of her great-grandchildren, Abe, Penny, Noah, Frankie, Leila, Theo, Lucy, Gayatri, and Aran.

Baltimore born and bred, Lois Blum Feinblatt lived on Eutaw Place surrounded by her many cousins, aunts and uncles. She married right before WWII began, and she and her baby son moved in to live downstairs from her parents on Hilton St., while her husband Irving served in Europe.

Lois was one of the first of her close-knit group of women friends to work outside the home. She started as an adoption social worker for the Maryland Department of Public Welfare for eight years. In 1966, she was selected for an innovative, Johns Hopkins-based program to train women who had raised families to be mental health counselors. She practiced as a psychotherapist at Hopkins, including many years at the Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit.

Lois’ knack for connecting people manifested itself in friendships, marriages, and professional endeavors. Lois’s expansive vision of social change led her to start the Adoption Connection Exchange, which brought together adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents and the Blum Mentor Program, providing supervision and mentoring for new teachers in under-resourced Baltimore public schools; and its successor, the Teachers Democracy Project, focused on public school teacher- and parent-advocacy. She served on the boards of Goucher College, Sheppard Pratt, CASA, the BMA, House of Ruth and FreeState Justice in addition to being the President of the Lois and Irving Blum Foundation.

Lois’ vast group of friends and ‘surrogate’ family members is legendary.

Services at Beth Am Synagogue, 2501 Eutaw Place, Baltimore, MD 21217, on Tuesday, April 19th, 2022 at 3:00 pm. The family will not be receiving prior to the service. Masks are required. Interment Baltimore Hebrew Cemetery. Please omit flowers. Contributions in her memory may be sent to Central Scholarship, 6 Park Center Court, Suite 211, Owings Mills, MD 21117 or CollegeBound Foundation, 2601 N. Howard Street, Suite 210, Baltimore, MD 21218. The family will be in mourning at The Inn at the Colonnade, 4 W. University Parkway, Baltimore, MD 21218. Valet Parking will be provided. The family will be receiving visitors on the tented outdoor patio on Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Thursday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.