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{{Short description|American businessman}}
{{Infobox person ▼
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| birth_place = [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]], [[Missouri]], United States▼
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| birth_name = Richard Adolf Bloch
| education = [[Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania]]▼
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| relatives = [[Henry W. Bloch]] (brother)
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'''Richard Adolf Bloch''' (February 15, 1926 – July 21, 2004)<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|url=
▲{{ref improve|date=March 2013}}
▲{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2011}}
▲'''Richard Adolf Bloch''' (February 15, 1926 – July 21, 2004)<ref name="NYT">{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/business/richard-bloch-78-businessman-who-helped-create-h-r-block.html|title=NY Times obituary|accessdate=March 30, 2009 | work=The New York Times | first=Sabrina | last=Tavernise | date=July 22, 2004}}</ref><ref name="HRB">{{cite web|url=http://http://newsroom.hrblock.com/richard-bloch/|title=Biography from H&R Block website|accessdate=April 8, 2015}}</ref> was an American entrepreneur, and philanthropist best known for starting the [[H&R Block]] tax preparation and personal finance company with his older brother [[Henry W. Bloch|Henry]] in 1955. His personal experience with cancer led him to invest in helping others fight and overcome the disease.
== Early life and education ==
Bloch was born to a [[American Jews|Jewish]] family in [[Kansas City]], the son of Hortense (Bienenstock) and Leon Bloch.<ref>{{cite web | title = H&R Block | publisher = [[Jewish Virtual Library]] | url = https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_03134.html | accessdate = 2014-03-10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/henry-bloch-h-r-block-s-co-founding-tv-pitchman-dies-at-96-1.1248166|title=Henry Bloch, H&R Block's Co-Founding TV Pitchman, Dies at 96 - Article|date=April 23, 2019}}</ref> In the 4th grade, Bloch found a hand press in his uncle's attic and began his first business as a printer. By the time he was 12, he had three automatic presses and was providing printing services to several [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] high schools. He sold his business to an [[Iowa]] college to use as a print course teaching model.
When he was 16, he entered the [[Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania|Wharton School]] (part of the [[University of Pennsylvania]]). In college Bloch was a member of [[Zeta Beta Tau]], the campus' Jewish fraternity. The youngest member of his class, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in economics in 1945. He helped pay his college expenses by purchasing used cars, repairing them and selling them for a profit.
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== Cancer ==
Bloch was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 1978, and told he had three months to live. He refused to accept the prognosis, and sought treatment at the [[The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center|M.D. Anderson Center]] in [[Houston]], Texas. After two years of aggressive therapy, his cancer went into [[remission (medicine)|remission]]. By 1980, he was focusing his energies on funding cancer research, and in 1982 he sold his interest in H&R Block.
Richard and Annette Bloch founded the Cancer Hotline in 1980 to educate newly diagnosed cancer patients, and their friends and families about available treatment resources. Later, they founded the R. A. Bloch Cancer Management Center and the R. A. Bloch Cancer Support Center at the [[University of Missouri–Kansas City]]. [[Ronald Reagan]] appointed him to a six-year term with the National Cancer Advisory Board in 1982. He was a member of the President's Circle of the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]], the [[Institute of Medicine]], and the [[National Institutes of Health]] [[U.S. National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine|Office of Alternative Medicine]]. He also received the 1994 [[American Society of Clinical Oncology]]'s Public Service Award and the 1995 Layman's Award from the Society of Surgical Oncology.
In the late 1980s, Bloch was diagnosed with [[colon cancer]], which was also successfully treated.<ref name="NYT" />
== Death ==
Bloch died of heart failure on July 21, 2004, at the age of 78.<ref name="NYT"/> He was survived by his wife, Annette (née Modell),<ref>[http://www.palmsprings.com/blog/palmsprings-com-spotlight-an-interview-with-annette-bloch/ Palm Springs.com: "PalmSprings.com Spotlight: An Interview with Annette Bloch"] December 10th, 2012</ref> daughters Linda Lyon, Barbara Stanny, and Nancy Linsely<ref name="NYT"/> and ten grandchildren.
== Bibliography ==
* ''Cancer... There's Hope'' (1981) ISBN 0-399-12814-X (1983 edition)▼
* ''Fighting Cancer: A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping Yourself Fight Cancer'' (1985) {{OCLC|319004046}}
* ''Guide for Cancer Supporters: Step-by-step Ways to Help a Relative or Friend Fight Cancer'' (1992) {{OCLC|25561085}}
==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==
* [http://blochcancer.org Bloch Cancer Foundation]
{{Authority control
▲| NAME = Bloch, Richard A.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch, Richard A.}}
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Kansas City, Missouri]]
[[Category:Writers from Kansas City, Missouri]]
[[Category:American financial businesspeople]]
[[Category:American health and wellness writers]]
[[Category:Jewish American non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni]]
[[Category:H&R Block]]
[[Category:
[[Category:20th-century American Jews]]
[[Category:21st-century American Jews]]
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