Life sciences investor Lawrence Bock passes away at 56

Longtime venture capitalist and biotech entrepreneur Lawrence Bock, who co-founded Avalon Ventures in 1988, passed away at his home on July 6 after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 56.

Bock, born Sept. 21, 1959, in Brooklyn, New York, joined Fairfield Venture Partners in 1985 after doing research at Genentech in infectious diseases and earning an MBA from UCLA. He then helped launched Avalon and then moved to CW Group in 1997. He most recently was serving as a special limited partner at Lux Capital.

As an entrepreneur, he helped to launch numerous biotech companies, including Caliper Technologies, Illumina Technologies, Metra Biosystems, Nanosys, Neurocrine Biosciences, Onyx Pharmaceuticals and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, among others.

He also founded the San Diego Science Festival and created the nationwide USA Science and Engineering Festival.

He is survived by his wife Diane, two daughters, Quincy Bock Stokes and Tasha Bock, and his mother, Uli Proctor.

In 2002, Venture Capital Journal profiled him in an article entitled “The Stealth Biotech Billionaire.”