Susan Allan Block

1967 - 2025

News story
By David Shribman
Special to The Blade

Susan Allan Block - celebrated pastry chef, local cultural proponent, lifelong animal lover, passionate supporter of conservative causes, fervent advocate for cancer patients - died Thursday. She was 58.

Mrs. Block, a one-time top swimmer and former executive assistant to two prominent New York City entrepreneurs, was a Toledo resident for 14 years following her marriage to Allan J. Block, chief executive officer of Block Communications. In that time, she was a frequent and visible figure in arts, nature, and recreational venues in Lucas County and one of the most avid local backers of rescuing pets facing euthanasia.

Mrs. Block was an unusual, colorful mixture of the sentimental and the strident, caring and contemplative in her personal life, passionate and committed in her support of her conservative convictions, of Donald Trump, and, earlier, of Barack Obama. The result was that Mrs. Block, described by her friends and her doctors alike as "a fighter," inspired fervid loyalty - and, on occasion, ferocious opposition. With great aplomb, she encouraged both and enjoyed both.

In the past several years, however, the impulse for the soft prevailed over the instinct for the hard, as Mrs. Block, who had a bout of childhood cancer that forced her as an infant to lose a kidney, battled a succession of adulthood health challenges, beginning with a diagnosis of clear-cell sarcoma of the soft tissue and the discovery of lesions in her liver. Eventually cancer spread elsewhere, including the bottom of her stomach, leading to her being put on hospice care and, eventually, to her death.

Mrs. Block was an enthusiastic and leading supporter of the Toledo Clinic Cancer Center.

"Susan wrestled all these years to overcome cancer," said Stephen Taylor, who operates the Taylor Automotive Group and began the center. "Throughout that period she was an inspiration for so many - a person with so many talents and so much courage. For so long, she fought so hard."

John Nemunaitis, the oncologist who is president of the board and chief scientific officer of the Taylor Family Research Foundation at the Toledo cancer center, said Mrs. Block was a warrior on behalf of others who were stricken with clear-cell sarcoma. "She knew that she would not live to benefit from the research under way and the work she did," he said, "but she went out of her way to help others who might."

In her own struggle, she was supported by many friends, including Diana King, who knew Mrs. Block from their days as schoolmates in East Longmeadow, Mass.

"She was a big personality and a true and loyal friend who would never leave your side," said Ms. King, a soccer referee and for three dozen years a health and welfare coach in Southwick, Mass.

Mrs. Block was born on Jan. 12, 1967, in Concord, Mass., to a 19-year-old unwed mother who named her Faith, in the hope, requited throughout her daughter's life, that faith would strengthen and sustain her.

With no trace for decades of her father - she assiduously sought, and eventually found, his identity - she was adopted by David and Ann Pond of East Longmeadow, in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, southeast of Springfield. There the young girl, renamed Susan Jeanne Pond, attended public schools, began a lifelong romance with the outdoors, and collected multiple ribbons, badges, and trophies for her competitive-swimming accomplishments.

After graduating from East Longmeadow High School, she raced through Wagner College, the small residential college on Staten Island, in two and a half years, having worked 60 hours a week to pay for her tuition, books, lodging, and food.

She lived nearly half her life in New York City.

Mrs. Block's peripatetic life path led her to becoming a personal assistant to, among others, Larry Robbins, the CEO of Glenview Capital Management, and Michael Overington, once the manager of Studio 54, the fabled midtown Manhattan nightclub, and later, with longtime associate Ian Schranger, credited as one of the creators of the boutique hotel concept. She took a position in medical sales, was a sales representative for the fabled German fashion house Strenesse, and in the summer of 2001 was in the early process of beginning a line of clothing - an especially unsuitable time for a New York startup, her efforts coming to fruition the very day of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

"She always had a good job, always took her work seriously, and always did everything carefully and correctly," said Catherine Hart, a retired lawyer and the entrepreneur behind SkinnyJeans who walked, shopped, and ate all over Manhattan with Mrs. Block in those days. "But always she was concerned with health matters - exercise, diet - and that was one reason she endured all the trials, operations, and tests she had until she died."

Mrs. Block was introduced to the man who, after a tortuous period, would become her husband in February, 2006, at a New York City restaurant. Some 22 months later, they met again, having been seated next to each other at a wine restaurant in downtown Manhattan on the eve of her departure for Madrid, where she had planned to be married. She canceled the wedding and on March 5, 2011, she and Mr. Block were married. Soon thereafter she legally changed her name to Susan Allan Block to avoid confusion with her sister-in-law at the time, Susan Jones Block, then the wife of John Robinson Block, publisher and editor-in-chief of The Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Mrs. Block moved to Toledo, the headquarters of the Block businesses, and eventually the couple purchased the home owned by Mr. Taylor, the Cadillac dealer. There Mrs. Block deepened her love of gardening, of landscape design, and, having become a constant presence at the Toledo Humane Society in Maumee, of animal rescue.

At the time of her death, Mrs. Block, who had two dogs as a child, had filled the Block home with three dogs (Finn, Lily, and Cash) and three cats (Tux, Wren, and Xena). Earlier, the couple had three pigs that had faced imminent death and for which they cared until the animals were infirm.

From the start, Mrs. Block was drawn to the culinary arts - and to restaurants of all sizes and cuisines.

"We spoke a lot about food, and she clearly loved everything about food," said Kengo Kato, who operates Kengo Sushi & Yakitori on South St. Clair Street, where Mrs. Block sometimes lingered at the small bar along the open kitchen. "She was the biggest fan of our restaurant and of our family and an important part of our lives."

In time, producing food for the public became a major part of her life.

She attended pastry school in Paris at Ecole Gregroire Ferandie, one of the leading culinary arts institutes in Europe, and also at the Ritz Escoffier School.

"This was a very strong, very smart woman, passionate in every thing she does," said Carol Anderson, a Toledo friend who visited Mrs. Block during that Paris interlude. "You could see her zest for life during that period."

In Toledo, fortified with recipes and the fine points of baking, she operated Vendome Pastry, on Angola Road. The shop, named for Paris' Place Vendome, established Mrs. Block locally as, in the phrase a Blade story once employed, the "Queen of Tarts" - a sobriquet that recognized her pastry treats, especially her pear tarts and walnut tarts.

"A lot of love and effort goes into these tarts," Mrs. Block said in a 2015 interview in which she described "a several-day process that cannot be rushed."

She operated the shop for five years, often working seven days a week. The business, producing creations with chocolate ganache, mocha caramel, maple walnut, and chocolate peanut butter mousse, cleared $40,000 in its last year of operation.

"She was a talented pastry chef," said Scott Pierce, who operates Tree City Catering and who shared a kitchen with Mrs. Block in her Vendome years. "At work in the kitchen, Susan was passionate and threw herself into her work."

Indeed, Mrs. Block was passionate in all endeavors and took great pride in defiantly not shying from, and on occasion actively and enthusiastically courting, controversy.

"She always spoke her mind, and never apologized for being outspoken," said Miss Hart, her New York companion. "She liked to say, 'Sorry - not sorry.'"

She luxuriated in being something of a welterweight pugilist, never pulling her punches, whether it involved labor controversies at Block Communications operations or national politics, where she was an ardent supporter of Trump.

This avocation sometimes led to occasional intemperate moments, including referring derisively to Kamala Harris on a Facebook post that was supposed to be private and urging "No peace!" the day after the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 - a social-media posting that led to her resignation from the Ohio Arts Council board.

In her last years, however, Mrs. Block was drawn more to quiet, contemplative pursuits, spending considerable time at the couple's home in Stonington, Maine (population 1,056), on the southern half of Deer Isle, two-thirds of the way up the ragged Maine coast from the New Hampshire line. There, in flannel shirts and jeans, she hiked and enjoyed the wildlife, often watching the seals at sunset.

Memorial donations are suggested to the Toledo Humane Society, Healing Of Our Veterans Equine Services (H.O.O.V.E.S.) in Swanton, Ohio, and the Lucas County Pit Crew.

Funeral arrangements are being handled through Walker Funeral Home-Sylvania, where visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday. A funeral is planned for 11 a.m. Thursday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Maumee.