https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/henry-bloch-h-r-block-s-co-founding-tv-pitchman-dies-at-96-1.1248166



(Bloomberg) -- Henry Bloch, who co-founded H&R Block with his brother and expanded it into the biggest U.S. tax preparer as its president and silver-haired television pitchman, has died. He was 96.

He died Tuesday, according to a statement from the company. No details were given.

H&R Block Inc., based in Kansas City, Missouri, says it has done more than 680 million tax returns around the globe in the past six decades. The firm expanded into brokerage and banking services in the 1990s and 2000s.

Henry Bloch co-founded the company in 1955 with his younger brother, Richard, who died in 2004. Henry managed the company, while Richard focused on opening franchises across the U.S. They used a tweaked spelling of their surname for the company, reasoning that “Block” would be easier for people to remember and spell.

Henry Bloch appeared in the company’s television advertising from 1972 into the 1990s. “We’re America’s tax team,” he said. “Put us to work for you.”

A public company since 1962, H&R Block made several stabs at diversifying over the years. From 1980 to 1997 it owned CompuServe Inc., one of the earliest dial-up Internet access providers, and also made forays into brokerage services, mortgages and temporary personnel services.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_W._Bloch#Personal_life_and_honors

Personal life and honors
In 1951, Bloch married Marion Helzberg; they had four children: Robert Bloch, Thomas Bloch, Mary Jo Bloch Brown, and Elizabeth Bloch Uhlmann[5] and lived in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The Henry Wollman Bloch Fountain[6] in front of Kansas City's Union Station is named in his honor, as is the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri–Kansas City and the Bloch Building, a major addition to Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

Bloch was inducted into the Junior Achievement's U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2001.

I've always wanted to do something different, something more than just a job, something to contribute to society.

—?Henry W. Bloch