Arthur Bloom, the owner of the stopwatch that has served as the symbol of 60 Minutes for over thirty years and the man who directed the popular news program since it debuted in 1968, died yesterday of cancer at the age of 63. Besides working on 60 Minutes, Bloom also worked with Dan Rather as the newsman prepared to take the reigns of the CBS News after Walter Cronkite stepped down. In addition to being with the program from the very beginning, Bloom also took over the show's live political coverage from 1974 to 1990. Besides the iconic stopwatch, Bloom created the basic aesthetic of the show, including the "magazine cover" images that introduced each segment.