William Block, "an uncommonly good man," 1915-2005

Yesterday, Pittsburgh lost a true pillar of the community, and today is impoverished for its loss. I'm not the knowledgeable one here, but the many people staffing the newspaper he oversaw for so long, the only true newspaper in the City, certainly are. Go read what they have to say.

From the Editorial page tribute:

Bill Block was in the typical mode of newspaper publishers in one respect: He was a fervent patron of the arts, first as a founder and president of the Gateway to the Arts program and in later years as a collector of contemporary glass pieces and a supporter of the Pittsburgh Glass Center. Last month, in a fitting and timely gesture, Pittsburgh City Council declared a Bill Block Sr. Day and he was honored at the Andy Warhol Museum.

But to the last he was a newspaperman -- to use the honorable old-fashioned name that best fits him -- who saw this occupation less as a business than as a sacred calling. That will be his lasting epitaph. Let the city and region join in our mourning and extend its sympathies to his wife Maxine and their children and the extended family. An uncommonly good man has died.

And to a new and treasured friend, my sympathy.