R. Bloch, 78; Helped Found H&R; Block

Richard Bloch, who co-founded H&R; Block and helped build the company into the world’s largest tax preparer, has died. He was 78.

Bloch died Wednesday of heart failure at his home in Kansas City, Mo., the company announced.

Bloch founded the company in 1955 with his brother, Henry, to take advantage of the demand created when the Internal Revenue Service stopped providing free income tax return service. H&R; Block, based in Kansas City, serves 21 million clients in 11 countries.

“Dick was a true entrepreneur,” said Mark Ernst, the company’s chairman and chief executive. “His personal integrity and commitment to helping people remain an important part of our company’s culture.”

Bloch, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 1978 but was in remission after two years of aggressive treatment.

Inspired by that experience, he and his wife, Annette, founded the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation in 1980 in Kansas City and donated heavily to programs for cancer patients and survivors of the disease. The foundation has helped develop 20 parks around the country dedicated to cancer survivors.

The son of Leon Bloch, a prominent tax lawyer, Richard Bloch was born Feb. 15, 1926, in Kansas City. He attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

In 1946, the brothers formed a business services company called United Business, which offered a number of services, including bookkeeping, collections and advertising. Tax preparation was one of the services they offered, but according to a company history of H&R; Block, they considered it so marginal that they offered it free to their customers.

The decision by the IRS in 1955 to stop offering free tax preparation assistance changed their view of tax preparation. They divested their business and reincorporated as H&R; Block -- changing the spelling of the family name slightly because they believed the public would mispronounce it to rhyme with “coach.”

Richard Bloch retired from the company in the early 1980s and committed himself to helping cancer victims.

In addition to his wife and his brother, Henry, Bloch is survived by another brother, Leon, and three daughters.