Legacy MattersGrowing up Irish in Boston, you have a different idea of obituaries and wakes than most people.
Around Boston obituaries were the Irish funny pages and that wakes are where the pols would go to pay their respects, drink and chat up the voters. If you've seen Spencer Tracy in The Last Hurrah, based on the book by Edwin O'Connor and on the life of James Michael Curley as Mayor of Boston, you know exactly what I mean.
So maybe it's not so surprising that one of the blogs that I visit regularly is the Blog of Death Every day, Jade Walker features one or more obituaries, each of which is a mini life story, sometimes showing how a life can change completely mid-course.
Richard Bloch was such a man. He and his brother founded H&R Block in 1955 to help people with their tax returns. Today the Kansas City-based company is now the world's largest tax preparer, with 21 million customers in 11 countries. But what is more remarkable is that he got lung cancer in 1978 and was told he had only 3 months to live. He underwent aggressive and extensive treatment and beat the cancer back. That experience prompted him to sell his interest in the company and to become an aggressive advocate for cancer patients.
He and his wife, Annette, launched the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation, the R.A. Bloch Cancer Management Center and the R.A. Bloch Cancer Support Center at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The couple created the Cancer Hotline, one of the first free phone services staffed by experienced volunteers to help cancer patients find available treatment resources, and penned three books. In the late 1980s, he also survived a bout of colon cancer.
That got me thinking about Charitable Entrepreneurs. In the United States, we are fortunate to have businessmen and women who bring their talents to bear to support and sometimes start charitable causes. It's an innovative, uniquely American way to solve social problems. While other countries depend on the government to take care of such social issues, in the U.S. people take it upon themselves to start, support and give to charitable organizations. Which may be why charitable giving in the US is dramatically higher in the U.S than in Europe
COUNTRY................GIVING in euros per capita
USA..............................278
Spain.......................... 122
Belgium.......................120
U.K............................. 117
Netherlands................110
Ireland........................ 100
France.......................... 74
Finland.......................... 70
Austria.......................... 50
Germany....................... 39
Hungary........................ 32
Slovakia........................ 25
Czech Republic.............25
Romania.........................5
hat tip Michael at 2 Blowhards