At 24 years old, Fred Bock became the founder and Director of Publications for the music publishing branch of Word, Inc., all while completing graduate courses at the University of Southern California. He dedicated 7 years to the company, later resigning to become the founder of Gentry Publications, an educational music company which offers sacred and secular arrangements for houses of worship. Overtime, Bock expanded his interests and developed several more publishing companies, the two largest being Gentry Publications and Fred Bock Music Company, a music publisher of church music for choir, organ and piano. Through the years, he acquired the Raymond A. Hoffman Company, a supplier of operettas for grade-school use; the H. T. FitzSimons Company, a supplier of organ and choral music for worship, as well as the Hamelle edition of Gabriel Faure’s REQUIEM; and Fox Music Publishing. These publishing companies and more encompass Fred Bock Publishing Group as we know it today.

Along with his entrepreneurship, Fred Bock was more than a businessman. Bock was also an avid lover of music, active member of church communities and an accomplished composer. He served as the Minister of Music at Hollywood Presbyterian Church for 18 years, and at the Bel Air Presbyterian Church, Los Angeles for 14 years. In 1976, he became the Editor of Hymns for the revolutionary collection Family of God, a passion project he had begun developing 15 years prior. Since its release, the hymnal has sold over 3 million copies across North America and beyond.

As a music artist, Bock worked as a keyboard-recording artist for secular and religious markets, and held the honor of frequently conducting Disneyland’s Candlelight Christmas Concert, which encompass two 1,000 voice choirs, a 50-piece orchestra, bell choir, soloist, and thousands of delighted audience members. His work as a studio musician can be heard in dozens of films and television shows, numerous studio recordings and contributed in an arrangement in Disneyland USA’s very own Haunted Mansion.