Federico "Fritz" Bloch was “a man who dreamed big things and always built them,” classmate Harry Chandler told those attending a service in June at Memorial Church. Foremost among Bloch’s visions was Grupo TACA, a consortium of Latin American airlines. During a period of 25 years, 12 of which overlapped with his country’s civil war, Bloch transformed a Salvadoran airline of three planes into a $600-million-a-year regional operation combining five carriers and more than 5,000 employees. In 1999, he won the Tony Jannus Prize for contributions to civil aviation.
Bloch, summoned by a cell phone call into the night, was waylaid and murdered April 26 in El Salvador. He had been shot in the head and chest, and was found in his SUV on a highway south of San Salvador. Six young men have been arrested in the murder investigation. El Salvador posthumously awarded Bloch, active in educational and charitable causes, its highest civilian honor. He was 50.
Bloch earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in industrial engineering at Stanford and an MBA at Harvard University. In his late 20s, he acquired an interest in TACA International Airlines, which was largely owned by the family of his boyhood friend and Harvard classmate Roberto Kriete. Bloch quickly became a prominent advocate of Latin American airlines and efforts to negotiate open-skies agreements. By encouraging airline owners in several countries to buy minority positions in each other’s companies, he and TACA chairman Kriete brought the flag-carriers of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica into the TACA group. In 1994, as CEO of TACA, Bloch started the Latin Pass frequent flyer program, which involved 14 airlines. He served as executive director of the Asociacíon Internacíonal de Transporte Aéreo Latinamericano and was active in the Young Presidents Organization, a group for international executives.
Bloch, the second of five children and the only son, was born in El Salvador to a physician father and a mother active in community service. His sister Rebecca Bloch-Lopez, ’78, MS ’79, says her brother’s “intensity for life did not allow him to do anything as a novice.” At the Stanford memorial service, she recalled the neck brace he earned water-skiing on the day of her wedding. He flew his own helicopter and small plane and took up scuba and sky diving.
Chandler, in an e-mail circulated among friends after Bloch’s death, wrote that “his smile was contagious, he exuded charm, he always looked out after everyone else’s well-being, he made your friendship always feel fresh and important.” While Stanford seniors, Bloch and five friends rented a house in Woodside, complete with apple trees, swimming pool and hillside views. The group became known as the Orchard Hill Gang, and Chandler wrote of their “demi-frat” spirit: the house was “legendary for our parties, Latino spirit and joie de vivre! Who could forget the birthday piñata that spewed forth with glitter and 1,000 joints!”
In the decades since graduation, the Gang and their families have gathered at far-flung locales, often celebrating their friendship at extravaganzas Bloch planned. For his wedding in 1980 to Jacqueline Laffite, a journalist from Honduras, Bloch wrangled permission to illuminate a church ruin in Guatamala. The ceremony took place on newly laid pine needles amid musicians, doves and fireworks.
With a passion for architecture, Bloch designed homes and improvements at properties he owned, including a house at the crater lake Coatepeque, a coffee farm north of San Salvador, a Costa Azul beach house, and a small Honduran island. He supported two projects Jackie Bloch founded: a medical and dental clinic serving 20,000 people on the Honduran island of Roatan, and a children’s museum in San Salvador, where the front half of a TACA airplane is a popular exhibit.
The Blochs’ two sons, David and Eric, are Stanford seniors. Ten days before his death, Federico Bloch had retired as CEO of TACA to spend more time with his family, especially David, who has been undergoing treatment for bone cancer. The family loved global travel. Jackie Bloch found among his papers a memo from his secretary that researched the dates for possible Easter vacations for the next 47 years. “When you traveled with him, you had to be ready to be sleep-deprived, pushed to the limit, but it would be extraordinary fun.”
Other survivors include his mother, Carmen Bloch Macias, and his sisters Carmen Colburn, Evelyn Bloch and Lissette Bloch-Quiros, ’88. A Federico Bloch Memorial Scholarship to benefit undergraduate students from Latin America has been established.
