“To Blossom ” is to develop successfully, to flourish. How befitting a name for this year’s Soroptimist of the Year, Blossom Sanger.  Born Blossom Appel in Lynn, Massachusetts, Blossom attended Wesley for her undergraduate degree, and went on to Tufts University Medical School.  Out of 125 students, only five were women, but she never saw that as a disadvantage or obstacle; her classmates were her friends and peers. Blossom interned at Boston City Hospital, where she met her husband, Dr. George Sanger, who was a Navy medical officer.

The couple started a family and after living in Maine for three years, they made the decision to relocate to California.  Blossom was pregnant with her third child Rick when, with a U-Haul attached, they loaded three-year old Wendy, two-year old George, and their Weimaraner Wolfgang into the car and headed west to San Diego.

Blossom practiced general medicine and became the hotel doctor at the Hotel Del Coronado, and George started his practice as an OBGYN.  After her fourth child David was born, Blossom went to San Diego County Hospital to do her residency in anesthesia.  She started as an anesthesiologist in the Coronado Hospital in 1960, and at that time, with a physician staff of only 10, three of the staff members were woman, which was an extraordinary percentage for women at that time in any profession, especially medicine.

Blossom continued to practice medicine until retirement age, and then she went back to her first love, art.  Her mother had been an artist, and Blossom began to share her mother’s passion as a young girl.  For the next ten years she went on to spend time focusing on what she loved:  spending time with her husband, her family, her art, and her friends.  In January 2015 she lost George, her partner and best friend for 59 years. Today Blossom has 8 granddaughters, 4 grandsons, and one great granddaughter.

It was in 2003 that Blossom was invited to a Soroptimist meeting by Linda Piper, a good friend and former president.  She looked around the room and saw many of her friends, and wanting a support group and impressed with the organization’s mission, she decided to become a member.  Four years later she was named the 2007 Soroptimist Legend. Chair of the Scholarship Committee, Blossom also took on the leadership role this year for the Human Trafficking Awareness Program held in January, which received widespread praise from those who attended.

Blossom passionately believes that women in our community and county need our help.  She feels “that the most important thing in a young person’s life is to be encouraged and to have confidence in oneself.”  And she remains committed, as an accomplished and successful woman, to help and provide for those women who have to struggle.  A Blossom  can also be defined as something lovely that gives rich promise.  That appropriately defines Blossom Sanger.