Obituaries

Huntington T. BlockInsurance Company Founder

Huntington T. Block, 83, founder of an insurance agency that wrote policies for museums and art collectors for six decades, died of cancer Feb. 25 at Capital Hospice in Arlington County. He was a Washington resident.

Mr. Block established his eponymous firm in 1961, and it became a leading insurer of art throughout the country. It is now owned by AON.

He was born in the District and nicknamed Bucky in honor of Bucky Harris, manager of the 1924 World Series champion Washington Senators. Mr. Block graduated from St. Albans, having earned three letters in football and played on three championship tennis teams.

He attended Virginia Military Institute before joining the Army during World War II. He served in the field artillery in Europe and participated in the battle for Bastogne.

After the war ended, Mr. Block returned to the United States and graduated from Princeton University.

He worked for an insurance company for several years before starting his firm. He focused on the niche trade of insurance for professional associations, nonprofit groups, corporate and private art collections, commercial art galleries, fine art and antique dealers, auction houses, museums and large international art exhibitions.

He sold his firm, which had grown to 135 employees, and worked for several years as a consultant before retiring in 1992.

Mr. Block volunteered as president of Tudor Place, a historic museum house in Georgetown, and was president and director of the Sconset Trust, a land preservation group on Nantucket, Mass., where he had summer home.

His wife of 54 years, Amie Willard Block, died in 2006.

Survivors include four children, Huntington M. Block of Westport, Conn., Bonnie Block Levison of Greenwich, Conn., William B.W. Block of New York and Amie Block Ratajczak of Brooklyn, N.Y.; a brother, Roger W. Block of Washington; and seven grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan