Bruce A. Epstein, MD

Bruce Epstein, 80, beloved patriarch, husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, friend, pediatrician, community icon, and philanthropist, passed away peacefully on September 25th surrounded by his wife of 58 years Amy, daughter Jenny and two sons, Jay and Robby.

Bruce grew up in University Heights, a suburb of Cleveland Ohio with his sister Ellen and his late parents, Sylvia and Isadore. He was a passionate student who had such an early enthusiasm for learning that he skipped his senior year of college at Case Western Reserve University and directly entered medical school early, also enlisting in the US Army during his education.

Medicine would transform his lifelong journey to take care of people. He completed his training in Pediatrics at Albert Einstein Hospital in the Bronx and Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital back in his hometown of Cleveland. He rose to the military rank of major where his career took him from the prestige of the Presidio in California to the tumbleweeds of Mineral Wells, Texas. Moving to Pinellas County with his young family in 1972, he joined the well-established pediatrics group of Cole and Welty. His amazing bedside manner - competent, calm, and reassuring – led his practice to flourish beyond expectations and the establishment of two separate offices under his name. Dr Epstein’s gift was his ability to make every mom and dad recognize they had the most important job in the world and give them the insight, tools, and advice to master parenthood.

Bruce and Amy quickly immersed themselves in the local Jewish community, becoming a constant presence and leaders within the Jewish National Fund, Jewish Community Center, Temple B’nai Israel, and The Florida Holocaust Museum (where Amy and Bruce are founding members). June of 1982 saw their passion realized when they made the first of over ten trips to Israel with the celebration of their youngest son Robby’s bar mitzvah atop Masada. Bruce would recall that trip as the beginning of their love of worldwide adventures with their family and friends, highlighted by a family African safari in 2014. Bruce was thrilled to share the joy of travel and discovery with his children and grandchildren and that trip was a turning point for his family who bonded through lots of laughter and love.

Bruce was also an avid sports fan, cheering for the Tampa Bay Lightning, Rays, and Buccaneers, but true to his roots, always keeping an eye out for the Cleveland Browns and Indians’ scores. He umpired baseball games in his earlier years but pivoted to soccer with his family as a Tampa Bay Rowdies fan, taking them in 1979 to New York City for the league championship. In true Bruce form, he was so proud to have found the same hotel where the Rowdies were staying and booked his family there so his children could delight in hanging out with their soccer heroes. His distinctively famous cheering style echoed in the Rose Bowl at the 1999 Women’s World Cup final, the Buc’s first Super Bowl victory in San Diego in 2003, and at hundreds of his kids and grandkids’ soccer games.

Bruce was selfless to a fault, always giving of his time and energy to his patients, the Jewish community, and his family. Through his passion and example of helping others, he has passed that caregiving torch to several of his grandchildren. Jacob is in his first year of his surgical residency in Ohio, Skylar is a paramedic in Pinellas County, Samantha and Allison are second year medical students at their grandfather’s alma mater in Cleveland, and dental school is on Lauren’s horizon.

Bruce leaves behind his wife Amy, sister Ellen, three children Jay (Sandy), Jenny (Todd) and Robby (Christi) and seven incredible grandchildren: Leah, Jacob, Noah, Skylar, Samantha, Allison and Lauren.

Services will be held, Wednesday, September 27, 2023 at 10am, Temple B'nai Israel, 1685 S Belcher Road, Clearwater, FL 33764. Interment will follow at Serenity Gardens Memorial Park in Largo, FL.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Temple B’nai Israel, the Florida Holocaust Museum, and the Norman Fixel Neurological Institute at the University of Florida.