• OUR FOUNDERS

    It started with two brothers

    In 1955, two brothers created a company that specialized in income tax return preparation. Today that company has approximately 12,000 retail offices worldwide. These are the stories of the men who founded H&R Block — Henry and Richard Bloch.

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  • Henry Bloch

    Henry W. Bloch

    Henry W. Bloch was born July 30, 1922. He attended Southwest High School, the University of Kansas City, and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1944. During World War II, Henry joined the Army Air Corps, flew 32 combat missions, and was awarded the Air Medal and three Oak Leaf Clusters. The Army Air Corps later sent Henry to the Harvard Business School for graduate training.

  • Richard Bloch

    Richard A. Bloch

    Richard A. Bloch was born Feb. 15, 1926. His entrepreneurial spirit sparked in the fourth grade when he found a hand press in his uncle’s attic and began his first business as a printer. By age 12, he had three automatic presses and was providing printing services to several Kansas City high schools. Before entering college, he sold his business to an Iowa college to use as a print course teaching model.

  • Building the foundation

    In 1946, Henry and his brother Leon founded the United Business Company. When Leon left to pursue law school, Henry hired his brother Richard.

    The company primarily offered small business services, but in 1955, the IRS stopped preparing free tax returns in Kansas City. The brothers published a well-timed tax ad in the Kansas City Star, and the next day, the office was booming.

  • H&R Block was born

    In July 1955, Henry and Richard created a new company that specialized in income tax return preparation: H&R Block, Inc.

    Their family name ‘Bloch’ had always been difficult to spell and pronounce, so they named the company ‘Block’ because it was simpler phonetically. Within weeks, the company grossed more than $20,000 — nearly a third of the annual volume United Business Company had taken years to develop.

  • Expanding the Block name

    Success prompted Richard to suggest expanding the business to New York City, the next city the IRS had scheduled to discontinue its tax preparation services. Targeting locations as close as possible to IRS offices, H&R Block opened seven offices in 1956. In only its second year, the company more than tripled revenues to $65,000.

  • Did you know?

    Most Americans are within 5 miles of an H&R Block office

  • What began as a dream between brothers continues to grow every day

  • Board of Directors

    These are the men and women who serve on the H&R Block Board of Directors.

    Learn about H&R Block’s Directors

  • Executives

    Get to know the members of the H&R Block executive team.