Spencer Block: Scant fashion sense, tons of business savvy

He had a rotation of jeans, Hawaiian shirts and blue Oxfords in his closet and seldom strayed from his comfortable, casual wardrobe.

One would never know that the former elementary school teacher, librarian and son of a Chicago fish monger was co-founder of multimillion-dollar Tucson-based national clothing chain Buffalo Exchange.

"He was banned from the buying room," said his wife, Kerstin. "He was not a fashion-interested person. I shopped for him," usually from the racks of their own stores.

Block's business savvy, combined with his wife's fashion sense, built a used-clothing empire from their original store, a tiny retail space they opened near the University of Arizona in 1974.

It's a testament to Block's acumen in retail that the team of employees and business associates he mentored over the years will be able to run the company in his absence. Block died at home Sunday, the result of a 4 1/2-year struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was 69. A memorial for family and friends will be scheduled in the autumn.

Block learned about business from his father. As a boy, he got hands-on experience working in the family fish market. Later, he worked behind the scenes as the accountant.

Block was an English major at the University of Arizona in 1960 when he met his future bride on campus. Kerstin was a Swedish anthropology student studying abroad for a year. When she went back to Sweden, Block followed. Eventually the couple returned to the States and Block's hometown of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor's degree in education and taught elementary school. From Illinois, the couple moved to Oregon, where Block continued teaching while earning a master's in psychology.

A job at a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school in Fort Apache brought the Blocks back to Arizona. After a year, they moved to Tucson, and Spencer returned to the UA for a second master's, this one in library science. It was while he was working as a librarian that his wife got the idea to open a clothing store that bought, sold and traded merchandise. Kerstin wanted a thoroughly American name for the store, and the buffalo was an iconic symbol of her adopted country. The word "exchange" simply described what they did.

Kerstin was the public face of the company while her husband preferred working behind the scenes.

"We had different talents, and it was a fortunate thing," said his wife of 47 years. "We were able to combine our talents to work together and create this company."

Greg Furrier, a partner in Picor Commercial Real Estate Services, had worked with Spencer over the years on property deals and was impressed with Block's astute business sense.

"They had a really good business model," Furrier said. "What really surprises people in Tucson is that the company is much bigger than anyone realizes."

Since opening their first small shop 35 years ago, Buffalo Exchange has grown to nearly 40 stores in a dozen states with annual sales totaling $56.3 million. Their company has been mentioned on television — "Good Morning America," CNN, "Today" — and in national magazines, including Time, Forbes, Elle and Vogue.

"They always bought cutting-edge kinds of fashions and they were really tuned into their customers," Furrier said.

Even with all their success, the couple, along with one of their daughters, Rebecca Block, continued to oversee operation of their Tucson stores. The Blocks' other daughter, Karen Bailey, also lives in Tucson.

Chief Operations Officer Vella Austin has been with Buffalo Exchange for 30 years. She worked her way up from her first position, as manager of the Tempe store.

"I learned everything about doing this job, and business in general, from Spencer Block," she said. "I think he operated quite a bit from his gut. He had his own philosophy he created Buffalo Exchange from. A lot of it had to do with being fair and honest.

"He means the world to me. I'm going to miss seeing Spencer in his Hawaiian shirts. He had one on every day."

As their company grew, the Blocks shared their success. Patrons of the arts, they awarded up to $10,000 annually to a local artist. Last year, the company was lauded at the Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona's annual ethics awards for its Tokens for Bags program that has generated more than $265,000 in donations to hundreds of nonprofit groups since 1994. They've supported Tucson charities for medical research, families in need and homeless teens. And they've given generously to local political campaigns.

"We realized early on that we wanted to give back to the community as much as we could," Kerstin Block said.

Her husband was equally magnanimous with his time, serving on community boards and government committees to benefit small-business owners and Pima County residents.

Block was a prolific writer of letters to the editor, and his concerns ran the gamut from global warming, gay marriage and human rights to energy conservation, environmental protection and the death of Fred Rogers, host of the PBS show "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

Though Block described himself and his wife as "people of the '60s," in a 2004 Arizona Daily Star article, he also was a socially responsible capitalist. It says as much on the company Web site. It's a philosophy Block crafted for his company and for his life and hinges on integrity, personal responsibility and having fun.

"There are lots of different ways that companies can branch out," Spencer Block said in 2004. "If they get too big, they can lose their soul. We have a nice spirit about it."