he was focusing his energies on funding cancer research, and in 1982 he sold his interest in H&R Block. Richard and Annette Bloch founded the Cancer Hotline in 1980 to educate newly diagnosed cancer patients, and their friends and families about available treatment resources. Later, they founded the R. A. Bloch Cancer Management Center and the R. A. Bloch Cancer Support Center at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. Ronald Reagan appointed him to a six-year term with the National Cancer Advisory Board in 1982. He was a member of the President's Circle of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine. He also received the 1994 American Society of Clinical Oncology's Public Service Award and the 1995 Layman's Award from the Society of Surgical Oncology. In the late 1980s, Bloch was diagnosed with colon cancer, which was also successfully treated. Death Bloch died of heart failure on July 21, 2004 at the age of 78. He was survived by his wife, Annette (née Modell), daughters Linda Lyon, Barbara Stanny, and Nancy Linsely and ten grandchildren. Bibliography Co-written with his wife: Cancer... There's Hope (1981) (1983 edition) Fighting Cancer: A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping Yourself Fight Cancer (1985) Guide for Cancer Supporters: Step-by-step Ways to Help a Relative or Friend Fight Cancer (1992) References External links Bloch Cancer Foundation 1926 births 2004 deaths Businesspeople from Kansas City, Missouri Writers from Kansas City, Missouri American financial businesspeople American health and wellness writers Jewish American writers Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni H&R Block 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews