David H. Koch Biography

David Hamilton Koch was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was a co-owner and executive vice president of Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held company in the United States. With a background in chemical engineering from MIT, he worked for various consulting firms before joining his family’s business. He eventually founded his own division, Koch Engineering, and became its president. Known for his generosity, Koch donated millions to medical research causes and institutions, including a significant contribution to MIT.

Quick Facts

  • Also Known As: David Hamilton Koch
  • Died At Age: 79
  • Family:
    • Spouse/Ex-: Julia Margaret Flesher
    • Father: Fred C. Koch
    • Mother: Mary R. Koch
    • Siblings: Bill Koch, Charles Koch, Frederick R. Koch
    • Children: David Koch Jr., John Mark Koch, Mary Julia Koch
  • Born Country: United States
  • Billionaires
  • CEOs
  • Died on: August 23, 2019
  • Place of Death: Southampton, New York, United States
  • Ancestry: Dutch American
  • Cause of Death: Prostate Cancer
  • U.S. State: Kansas
  • City: Wichita, Kansas
  • Founder/Co-Founder: Citizens for a Sound Economy, Americans for Prosperity
  • Education: Massachusetts Institute Of Technology

Childhood & Early Life

David Koch was born on May 3, 1940 to Mary and Fred Chase Koch. His father was a chemical engineer cum businessman who founded the Koch Industries the same year David was born. He has three brothers: Frederick, Charles, and William.

David attended the Deerfield Academy prep school in Massachusetts, graduating in 1959. Then he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from where he earned his Bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering in 1962. He completed his Master’s degree a year later. As a college student he was also an active sportsman, a skilled player of basketball.

Career

After completing his education, he embarked on an engineering career and worked as a research and process design engineer at several consulting firms over the next few years. Arthur D. Little, the Amicon Corporation, Halco International, and the Scientific Design Company are some of the companies he worked for in the 1960s.

David Koch joined the family business, Koch Industries, in 1970. It was founded by his father years ago and at that time it was headed by his elder brother Charles Koch. One of his initial positions at the company was that of a technical-services manager. Eventually David went on to found the company’s New York office and by 1979 had become the president of his own division, Koch Engineering which was later renamed Chemical Technology Group.

He developed an interest in politics and became the Libertarian Vice-Presidential candidate in the U.S. presidential election in 1980, sharing the party ticket with presidential candidate Ed Clark. The duo promised to abolish Social Security, the Federal Reserve Board, welfare, minimum-wage laws, corporate taxes, all price supports and subsidies for agriculture and business, and received just under a million popular votes in what was the most successful Libertarian U.S. presidential campaign until that date. Once a staunch believer in the Libertarian ideals, he broke with the Libertarian Party in 1984 when it supported eliminating all taxes. Since then he has been a Republican.

In 1984, David Koch along with his brother Charles, established Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), a conservative political group operating in the United States. The group was dedicated to free markets and called for the highest level of personal involvement in public policy activism.

Philanthropic Works

As David Koch was a cancer survivor, he donated generously to fund medical research regarding cancer. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Prostate Cancer Foundation. He established the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation which funded cancer research and a number of arts and science organizations, including the American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History.

In 2007, he made a donation of $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.

The Koch brothers, David and Charles, provided the initial funding to the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and to a related advocacy organization, Americans for Prosperity which is one of the most influential American conservative political advocacy organizations.

Personal Life & Legacy

David Koch was married to Julia M. Flesher Koch and had three children. David Koch died on 23 August 2019, at the age of 79.

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