KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Marion Bloch, the wife of H & R Block co-founder Henry Bloch, died Tuesday at her home in Mission Hills. She was 83.
The Blochs were married for 62 years. She was her husband’s partner in their small company that Bloch and his brother built into the largest tax preparation company in the United States.
“She was my whole life,” Henry Bloch told The Kansas City Star Tuesday. “There’s never been a marriage better than mine in the world, I don’t think. She was perfect.”
“I was supposed to die first because I’m eight years older,” Bloch continued, “but it didn’t work out that way.”
The Blochs’ foundation, The Marion and Henry Block Family Foundation, is one of the largest in the midwest. The famiy’s philanthropy has benefitted several Kansas City institutions, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Henry A. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and St. Luke’s Hospital.
A lifelong residents of Kansas City, Marion graduated from Southwest High School and the University of Missouri. She is survived by her husband and her children, Robert, Thomas, Mary Jo and Elizabeth.
There will be a public memorial service for Mrs. Bloch at 2:00 p.m. Monday, September 30 at the Atkins Auditorum at the Nelson Gallery. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests contributions to the Nelson or to the St. Luke’s Hospital Foundation.
Her funeral will be private.
Condolences can be sent online to the e-mail address: rememberingmarion@ blochfamilyfoundation.org.
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