Richard Bloch: Difference between revisions

'''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://www.hrblock.com/press/rbloch_bio.jsp|title=Biography from H&R Block website|accessdate=March 30, 2009}}</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.

 

Bloch was born to a [[American Jews|Jewish]] family in [[Kansas City]].<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> 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.

 

Bloch returned to Kansas City after graduating, married his wife, Annette, and began working in the [[municipal bond]] business. Around the same time, his brothers Henry and Leon launched the United Business Co. bookkeeping business. His brothers asked him to come aboard as an accountant.

 

In 1955, Henry and Richard Bloch renamed the business H&R Block, changing the spelling to avoid mispronunciation, and focused on tax preparation services. While Henry managed the company in Kansas City, Richard concentrated on nationwide expansion. By 1969, he shifted his efforts overseas while Henry took charge of the company's domestic business.

 

=== Lung 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.

 

=== Cancer returns ===

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. He was survived by his wife, Annette, daughters Linda Lyon, Barbara Stanny and Nancy Linsely<ref name="NYT"/> and ten grandchildren.

 

== Books co-written with his wife ==

 

== References ==

 

== External links ==