I wanted to pay a very special tribute to my dear friend and mentor Bob Block who sadly passed away this morning after a remarkable life. He was 93 and had a profound effect on my life and my journey moving to the USA. When I first met him on a plane between Shanghai and Beijing we had an amazing conversation and he shared a couple of incredible wisdoms' that have always stuck with me..
Firstly he said "Life is broken up into thirds, the first third of your life; you learn, the second third; you earn and the last third; you return. That makes for a rich rewarding life"
Secondly - when I met him, his wife had sadly passed away after 52 years of marriage. We were talking about business and building trusted relationships, he said to me "You know, my wife went through her life not trusting anyone until they earnt her trust.... He said, I went through my life trusting everyone until they disproved my trust.. If I reflect back, I had a more enjoyable life" Meaning it is better to be open and trusting than not..
Thirdly - He has written numerous articles and has over 200 patents to his name, invented pay per view television (the basis of Netflix and many others now) worked with Kings and Presidents from countries all around the world and even received the prestigious Atlas award for his pioneering thinking in the last century. I'm happy to share his full article if you want to direct message me but he wrote one called "Living a meaningful life" He broke it up into 10 simple truths which go into further detail, but here are the lessons:
Everything is connected to everything
Believe in yourself
Don't settle for less than the best you can do
Respect difference
Make trust a conscious decision
Take control of your emotions instead of letting your emotions taking control of you
Be sure you spell peace right
True happiness comes from contributing to other people's happiness, be happy to share
Learn to learn from the experience of others
Humor is a great lubricant...
Thank you Bob for your wonderful friendship, your kindness and grace, you welcomed me into your family as I welcomed you into mine, you will be sorely missed. Hail and Farewell my friend, Hail and Farewell...
- Neil Morgan
The earth is a better place for having had Robert S. Block in it for 93 years. Bob lead by example and embraced life from a place of love and compassion, not to be confused with his keen business mind. Like countless others he was my friend. I cherish the day I met him and will always embrace the amazing memories, conversations, lunches, meetings, and introductions with a tender love for him as he loved life. I join the very long list of the many who will miss, but never forget him. My heart felt condolences to the family. Heaven has received one of the very good ones. We miss you already, Bob.
- Susan Moses
Being a person who didn’t grow up with a dad in my life I constantly looked for father figures to emulate.
In 2015 I met a true mensch by the name of Robert S. Block. I called him Mr. Block for most of our friendship. “Call me Bob Joshua” he would always say to me. But a truly great man with his character deserved to be called Mr. By everyone. Mr. Block has taught me so many things that truly helped me make it through so many tough situations life had thrown at me. Mr Block was also there for my family and I many times when we needed assistance. I’m so thankful to be blessed to call Mr Block my business partner but more importantly my friend. Two quotes that stick out that Mr Block constantly imbedded in my brain were “If they do it for you, they’ll do it to you.” And my favorite was “before you do anything in life, you always have to do something else first.” I will miss Mr. Block so much. He is truly one of the greatest humans I was blessed to know. Kiss your beautiful wife, and laugh with Henny Sir. You will surely R.I.P. love you Bob
- Joshua Macciello
My friend Bob Block passed away at the age of 94. What a life! He was friends with Henny Youngman and told me a great story about Henny and a Royal Performance in London. I think of the night at the Magic Castle in Hollywood in 2004 when he took me and Brenda there and Shelly Saltman as there, I hadn't seen Shelly in a long time and that renewed our friendship big time and he introduced us to Bill Goldstein, the songwriter who did the TV show FAME. But more importantly, Bob who was in his mid 70s, who showed a child like enthusiasm for being there and watching the magicians. He was so happy. Then in 2005, the day after Katrina, the Coast Guard lost communications with New Orleans. He were in Reno doing lunch with Bob and his wife Carol. But he had to leave. He eventually apologized explaining he was on the phone with government officials. He owned radio towers in Mobile, Alabama and the Coast Guard lost communications with New Orleans and he was negotiating a deal to get the communications restored. He got a Congressional honor for his work. He had patents and was truly a renaissance man and a friend. I could go on and on but Bob had a life worth living even though he once asked me to go a bit easier on Bud Selig. You see back in Milwaukee, a young Bob owned a comedy club and was in advertising and one of his clients was Selig Ford.
- Evan Weiner
Very saddening today to hear of the passing of Robert S. Block. I had the privilege to share conversations with him from time to time over the years and he was always so supportive and full of life. He has been a person that I admired and try to emulate. He will be remembered by all, not only for his numerous accomplishments, but as the kind and generous man he was.
My thoughts and wishes go out to his family.
- Leslie Falvey
Go rest high on that mountain, Son your work on earth is done......
Rest in peace Robert, you have been such an inspiration in life. Love you
RESPECT — 
feeling hopeful.
- Clint Wensley
While you were explaining that little anecdote about “Is this the best you can do” it brought me back to the many times bob and I labored long hours creating and rewriting advertising copy, or working on a patent application, many times working into the night in Marina del Rey to the point I had to sleep over, only to start again in the morning. For example, when creating the commercials and brochure for national licensing we worked several hours a day for about two weeks rewriting only two pages of dialogue. In fact, we spent one week on the first two lines alone. We had to make sure that in the first two sentences, the people did not think they were just getting a phone, because winning an actual phone company was so incredulous to the average person. In addition, we were constantly debating whether to put the ping pong balls on the front of the brochure. Would people think it was too crass. We finally decided to go with it because it was honest. That was the way the winners were picked.
The average person would have thought that dwelling over every word and constantly rewriting was in fact a useless exercise or a pain; however, I was in my glory because each time we changed it, we were making it better. In fact, it was actually fun because we were both creating and contributing. There is no one else in the world I could have done that with. Bob was indeed one of a kind.
Several months ago I told Bob I was moving to Poland. He did not hesitate one second to give me several contacts in Poland that he thought could be of help to me. I don’t have to tell you that your dad was always ready to help if you need it. I was not in contact with bob on a daily basis because I was living in Europe; however, we did correspond by email. The distance did not hamper my love for him. I would have done anything he asked of me. I will miss him more than I can adequately express in words.
I understand that a piece of you has been torn out.
- Robert Loye
