Over the years, I had the opportunity to spend time socially with Henry Bloch, H&R Block founder and philanthropist. He was a close friend of my father, so I was aware of his enormous impact on the Kansas City area through his charitable foundations and gifts to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Saint Luke’s Hospital and the University of Missouri-Kansas City, just to name a few.

He was excellent company. What I learned during these interactions was that for all his accomplishments, Henry remained very down-to-earth and unassuming.

One of my father’s ties to Henry was their shared experience serving in World War II. Henry was the navigator on a B-17 bomber, and his tour of duty included 32 combat missions in Europe.

On one of those missions, something remarkable happened that had profound implications for the future philanthropic landscape of Kansas City.

I remember him telling a story to a rapt audience at the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library. During a mission he had the sudden impulse to get out of his navigator’s seat, stand behind the bombardier and watch him drop bombs over the target.

Afterward, he returned to his seat, or more precisely, where his seat would have been had it not been blown out of the airplane by German flak. As he shared, had he not acted on his sudden impulse, there would have been no H&R Block, which would have impacted the philanthropic activities that followed.

Henry’s impact was exponentially multiplied by the power of philanthropy – the synergy that takes place when donors, organizations, fundraisers and volunteers aspire to work together.

As Tom Bloch said in his biography of his father, “Having beaten the most daunting of odds by surviving his air combat missions, Henry was not deterred by the risks of starting a business.” Quoting his father, he included these words:

“This is not a world we can turn our backs on.  We cannot retreat into our own private worlds, into our personal castles, pulling the drawbridge in behind us.  There is no safe place where we can shrug our shoulders and say, ‘But it doesn’t concern me.’”