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David Hamilton Koch ( ; May 3, 1940 – August 23, 2019) was an American businessman, political activist, philanthropist, and chemical engineer. In 1970, he joined the family business: Koch Industries, the second largest privately held company in the United States. He became president of the subsidiary Koch Engineering in 1979 and became a co-owner of Koch Industries (along with elder brother Charles Koch) in 1983. Koch served as an executive vice president of Koch Industries until he retired due to health issues in 2018.
Koch was a libertarian. He was the 1980 Libertarian candidate for Vice President of the United States and helped finance the campaign. He founded Citizens for a Sound Economy and donated to advocacy groups and political campaigns, most of which were Republican. Koch became a Republican in 1984; in 2012, he spent over $100 million in a failed bid to oppose the re-election of President Barack Obama.
Koch was the fourth-richest person in the United States in 2012 and was the wealthiest resident of New York City in 2013. As of June 2019, Koch was ranked as the 11th-richest person in the world (tied with his brother Charles), with a fortune of $50.5 billion. Koch contributed to the Lincoln Center, Sloan Kettering, NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital, and the Dinosaur Wing at the American Museum of Natural History. The New York State Theater at Lincoln Center, home of the New York City Ballet, was renamed the David H. Koch Theater in 2008 following Koch's gift of $100 million for the renovation of the theater.
Koch attended the Deerfield Academy prep school in Massachusetts, graduating in 1959. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning both a bachelor's (1962) and a master's degree (1963) in chemical engineering. He was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. Koch played basketball at MIT, averaging 21 points per game at MIT over three years, a school record. He also held the single-game scoring record of 41 points from 1962 until 2009, when it was eclipsed by Jimmy Bartolotta.
As of 2010, David Koch owned 42 percent of Koch Industries, as did his brother Charles. He held four U.S. patents. Koch served as an executive vice president of Koch Industries until retiring due to health issues in 2018. His retirement was announced on June 5, 2018.
After the bid, according to journalist Brian Doherty's Radicals for Capitalism, Koch viewed politicians as "actors playing out a script".
Koch credited the 1976 presidential campaign of Roger MacBride as his inspiration for getting involved in politics:
Here was a great guy, advocating all the things I believed in. He wanted less government and taxes, and was talking about repealing all these victimless crime laws that accumulated on the books. I have friends who smoke pot. I know many homosexuals. It's ridiculous to treat them as criminals — and here was someone running for president, saying just that.
Koch gave his own vice presidential campaign $100,000 a month after being chosen as Ed Clark's running mate. "We'd like to abolish the Federal Election Commission and all the limits on campaign spending anyway," Koch said in 1980. When asked why he ran, he replied: "Lord knows I didn't need a job, but I believe in what the Libertarians are saying. I suppose if they hadn't come along, I could have been a big Republican from Wichita. But hell — everybody from Kansas is a Republican."
In 1984, Koch broke with the Libertarian Party when it supported eliminating all taxes; in a letter to David Bergland, the Libertarian candidate for the 1984 presidential election, Koch referred to Bergland's platform as "extreme", predicting that the country would be thrown into "utter chaos" if it was implemented. Subsequently, Koch shifted the bulk of his financial support to the Republican Party, though he continued to contribute to several Libertarian campaigns in local races. Koch donated to various political campaigns, most of which were Republican. In February 2012, during the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election, Koch said of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, "We're helping him, as we should. We've gotten pretty good at this over the years. We've spent a lot of money in Wisconsin. We're going to spend more," and said that by "we" he meant Americans for Prosperity.
In 2012, Koch spent over $100 million in a failed bid to oppose the re-election of President Barack Obama.
Koch opposed several of President Barack Obama policies. An article from the Weekly Standard, detailing the "left's obsession" with the Koch brothers, quotes Koch stating that Obama is "the most radical president we've ever had as a nation ... and has done more damage to the free enterprise system and long-term prosperity than any president we've ever had". Koch said that Obama's father's economic socialism, practiced in Kenya, explains why Obama has "sort of antibusiness and anti-free enterprise" influences. Koch said that Obama is "scary", a "hardcore socialist" who is "marvelous at pretending to be something other than that". Koch contributed almost entirely to Republican candidates in 2012.
Koch sat on the board of the libertarian Cato Institute and Reason Foundation and donated to both organizations. The Koch brothers have been involved in blocking regulations and legislation to confront climate change since 1991, when the Cato Institute held the "Global Environmental Crisis: Science or Politics?" According to NPR, the Koch brothers gave "over $145 million to climate-change denying think tanks and advocacy groups between 1997 and 2018."
In August 2010, Jane Mayer wrote an article in The New Yorker on the political spending of David and Charles Koch. It stated: "As their fortunes grew, Charles and David Koch became the primary underwriters of hard-line libertarian politics in America." An opinion piece by journalist Yasha Levine in The New York Observer said Mayer's article had failed to mention that the Kochs' "free market philanthropy belies the immense profit they have made from corporate welfare".
In 2011, 2014, and 2015 Time magazine included Charles and David Koch among the Time 100 of the year, for their involvement in supporting the Tea Party movement and the criticism they received.
The Koch brothers' advocacy has also attracted scrutiny and criticism. Michelle Chen, writing in The Nation, and William C. Anderson, writing in The Guardian, caution that the Kochs' efforts reflect broader interests in further privatizing the criminal justice system. In 2015, The Intercept reported that the Kochs' philanthropic efforts exist alongside continued funding of "tough-on-crime" political candidates and committees pushing for harsher sentencing. Writing in Political Research Associates, Kay Whitlock argues that the Kochs' avid support for measures such as mens rea or "criminal intent" reform exemplify "an agenda of deregulation and relief for 'overcriminalized' corporations and executives" rather than concern for individual rights of the accused.
Overall, Koch has donated more than $1.3 billion to Philanthropy.
Koch was the longest-serving trustee of the American Ballet Theatre, serving on its board for 25 years and contributing more than $6 million to the theater. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of WGBH-TV.
Koch was also a benefactor of the Deerfield Academy, his alma mater. The academy's natatorium, science center, and field house are named after him. Koch was named the academy's first Lifetime Trustee.
Koch has sat on the Board of Trustees of NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital since 1987. In 2007 he donated $15 million to NewYork–Presbyterian. In 2013, he gave $100 million to NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital, the then-largest philanthropic donation in its history, beginning a $2 billion campaign, to conclude in 2019, for a new ambulatory care center and renovation of the infrastructure of the hospital's five sites.
Koch was a member of the board of directors of the Prostate Cancer Foundation and contributed $41 million to the foundation, including $5 million to a collaborative project in the field of nanotechnology. An eponym of the David H. Koch Chair of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the position is held by Dr. Jonathan Simons.
In 2006, Koch gave $20 million to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore for cancer research. The building he financed was named the David H. Koch Cancer Research Building.
In 2007, he contributed $100 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the construction of a new research and technology facility to serve as the home of the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. From the time he joined the MIT Corporation in 1988, Koch has given at least $185 million to MIT, and $30 million to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The same year, he donated $25 million to the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to establish the David Koch Center for Applied Research in Genitourinary Cancers.
In 2011 Koch gave $5 million to the House Ear Institute, in Los Angeles, to create a center for hearing restoration, and $25 million to the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City
In 2015, he committed $150 million to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City to build the David H. Koch Center for Cancer Care, which will be housed in a 23-story building in development between East 73rd and 74th Streets overlooking the FDR Drive. The center will combine state-of-the-art cancer treatment in an environment that supports patients, families, and caregivers. The building will include flexible personal and community spaces, educational offerings, and opportunities for physical exercise. Koch also donated $10 million to the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for biomathematics research.
Following Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' death in 1994, Koch purchased her 15-room apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue. In 1996 he married Julia Flesher. The apartment "wasn't roomy enough" after the birth of their third child, so Koch sold it to billionaire Glenn Dubin in 2006 and moved with his family to 740 Park Avenue. They had three children together; David Jr., Mary Julia, and John. Mary Julia is a staff reporter for The New York Sun, and was editor-in-chief of The Harvard Independent.
Koch died at his home in Southampton, New York, on August 23, 2019, at the age of 79. Koch's wife, Julia Koch, and their three children inherited a 42% stake in Koch Industries from Koch upon his death.
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Categories: 1940 Births, 2019 Deaths, 1980 United States Vice-presidential Candidates, 20th-century American Businesspeople, 20th-century American Politicians, 21st-century American Businesspeople, American Anti–iraq War Activists, American Billionaires, American Chemical Engineers, American Men's Basketball Players, American People Of Dutch Descent, American Political Fundraisers, Businesspeople From New York City, Cato Institute People, Deaths From Cancer In New York, Deerfield Academy Alumni, Engineers From New York, David, Libertarian Party Vice Presidential Nominees, Mit School Of Engineering Alumni, Mit Engineers Men's Basketball Players, New York Libertarians, New York Republicans, Philanthropists From New York, Businesspeople From Wichita, Kansas, Politicians From Wichita, Kansas, Scientists From New York, Survivors Of Aviation Accidents Or Incidents, Tea Party Movement Activists, American Twins, Activists From Kansas, People Named In The Paradise Papers, Kansas Republicans, 20th-century American Engineers
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