David H. Koch

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David H. Koch (2015)

David Hamilton Koch [ koʊk ] (born May 3, 1940 in Wichita , Kansas - † August 23, 2019 in Southampton , Hamptons , New York ) was an American entrepreneur , philanthropist and politician .

Like his brother Charles G. Koch , he owned 42% of the Koch Industries group and was its Vice President from 1981 to 2018. His net worth was estimated at $ 43.8 billion in 2018. This placed both brothers in 8th place on Forbes' list of the richest people . They supported conservative - libertarian candidates and organizations such as the Tea Party movement , to whose radicalization and extensive takeover of the Republican Party they made a significant contribution. Linked to this was massive funding for climate change denial . As one of the most important philanthropists in the United States, Koch donated primarily to cultural institutions in Manhattan , where he lived, and to cancer research.

Life

His father was the entrepreneur Fred C. Koch . He had three brothers including Charles Koch, who has been the president of Koch Industries since 1967 . David Koch studied chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and received his master's degree in 1963 . He then worked in various engineering companies until he joined Koch Industries as a manager in 1970. In 1981 he was promoted to the company's management as Vice President. While Charles in Wichita, the company's headquarters, ran the company with great dedication, David lived and worked in New York and enjoyed the life of a wealthy bachelor alongside his work. He rented the mega-yacht Leander in the south of France for up to half a million dollars a week and bought an oceanfront property in Southampton, New York, where he threw lavish parties.

In 1991, he was the only one of the passengers in the first class to survive a plane crash, seriously injured. The following year he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, a disease from which he was never completely cured in the last 27 years of his life. In 1996 he married the 27-year-old Julia M. Flesher , with whom he had a daughter and two sons. The family lived at 740 Park Avenue , one of the most exclusive addresses in Manhattan . Koch was the richest resident of New York.

Koch was on friendly terms with Bill and Melinda Gates and Prince Charles . In the last years of his life he withdrew more and more from the public. In mid-2018, he gave up his position at Koch Industries for health reasons. He died on August 23, 2019 after a long illness in his Southampton estate. His wife Julia Flesher Koch, who, depending on the calculation, inherited $ 42 billion to $ 52 billion and became the third richest woman on earth, became the heiress.

philanthropy

The David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, New York

Koch's father had already transferred part of his fortune to his sons in the form of a fund during his lifetime , which, in order to avoid inheritance tax, was subject to the condition that all profits had to be donated to charity for 20 years. As David Koch later told, he was used to it from a young age that a large part of his income was used for philanthropic purposes ("I sort of got into it."). In later years he was a major contributor to the Lincoln Center Cultural Center , the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History (all in Manhattan).

In 2007 he donated $ 100 million to MIT, where he studied, to build a new research facility. The institute housed in it and completed in 2010 was named after him the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research . That same year he donated 30 million to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center . According to his statement, Koch's involvement in cancer research goes back to his own cancer. ("Once you get that disease [...] you become a crusader to try to cure the disease not only for yourself but for other people.")

In 2008 he donated $ 100 million to renovate the New York State Theater in Lincoln Center, which was then named after him. The Chronicle of Philanthropy listed him several times in its top 50 largest donors, including number 11 in 2013. Overall, his charitable donations are valued at over $ 1.2 billion.

David Koch's philanthropic activities were not without controversy. For example, Tim Dickinson wrote in an obituary in Rolling Stone magazine that Koch bought the family clan the respect of the city of New York with his donations, and pointed out that Koch Industries is one of the biggest polluters in the United States and that David Koch was one of the contributors To massively influence environmental and climate policy in the interests of the Group's profit interests. No obituary should do without the victims of the Koch Group. Jeet Heer noted in The Nation that with Koch's philanthropy one should never forget where the money for it came from. The Koch brothers' charity cannot outweigh their misdeeds.

politics

1980 Koch was at the initiative of his brother Charles as vice presidential -Kandidat ( running mate ) by Edward E. Clark for the Libertarian Party in the presidential election nominated. Although Koch - exempted from the $ 1,000 limit as a candidate - invested over $ 2 million, which accounted for almost 60% of the campaign's budget, they won only 1.1 percent with 921,299 votes. From this, the brothers drew the consequence of no longer betting on elections, but of withdrawing from the public eye and, with great financial commitment at universities and think tanks , establishing and disseminating their radical libertarian views in science (see Charles G. Koch # Politics ).

As Koch Industries became increasingly conflicted with law, Charles and David Koch began to revert to politics and became major donors to the Republican Party in the 1990s . In 1996 David Koch was part of the leadership of Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole's campaign against Bill Clinton .

In 2009, David Koch hit the headlines when it became known that he was on the advisory board of the National Cancer Institute while his company, which was a major producer of formaldehyde at the time , cracked down on the substance's classification as a carcinogen. Koch saw no conflict of interest in this and was upset about the questioning of his integrity.

With his brother Charles, he played an important role in promoting the Tea Party movement within the Republican Party, its movement to the far right of the political spectrum and its rise within the party. This included founding and funding the Americans for Prosperity advocacy group , which also supports the American Legislative Exchange Council and other right-wing conservative political movements. David Koch supported the expansion of roads and highways and was against the expansion of public transport because it was too burdensome for taxpayers. Together with his brother, he was an influential financier of organizations that fight human-made climate change . According to information from Greenpeace , they have donated more than 100 million dollars to groups of climate change deniers as defined by Greenpeace since 1997. As a climate change denier, Greenpeace defines “anyone who hinders, delays or tries to divert political steps that follow the scientific consensus that quick action is necessary to decarbonise society ”.

capital

David H. Koch was a multi-billionaire and one of the richest people in the world. According to the Forbes 2018 list , his net worth - like that of his brother Charles - was $ 43.8 billion. This made him number 7 on Forbes' list of the richest people in the United States and 8 of the richest people in the world at the time of his death.

literature

Web links

Commons : David H. Koch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Robert D. McFadden: David Koch, Industrialist Who Fueled Right-Wing Movement, Dies at 79. In: nytimes.com . August 23, 2019, accessed on August 23, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Jane Mayer: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Doubleday, New York 2016. p. 52, ISBN 978-0-3855-3559-5 .
    David Koch net worth. In: Bornrich. Retrieved February 10, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b Alyssa Choiniere: "David Koch's Cause of Death: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know" heavy.com of August 24, 2019
  4. ↑ "David Koch Kids & Family: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know" Heavy.com from August 23, 2019
  5. ↑ American billionaire David Koch is sick. In: faz.net. June 5, 2018, accessed June 5, 2018 .
  6. ↑ High Society: Billion Heiress Julia Flesher Koch: In one fell swoop, third richest woman in the world. Retrieved April 17, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Jane Mayer: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Doubleday, New York 2016, p. 42.
  8. ^ The Koch Institute: News - 2007 - David H. Koch gives $ 100 million to MIT for cancer research. Retrieved August 24, 2019 .
  9. ^ Sally Beatty: Institutional Gift, With a Catch . In: WSJ . October 9, 2007.
  10. ^ The Koch Institute: About Us. Retrieved August 24, 2019 .
  11. ^ Sally Beatty: Institutional Gift, With a Catch . In: Wall Street Journal . October 9, 2007, ISSN  0099-9660 ( wsj.com [accessed August 24, 2019]).
  12. ↑ Robin Pogrebin: David H. Koch to give $ 100 million to theater. In: The New York Times. July 10, 2008, accessed August 23, 2019 .
  13. ^ Maria Di Mento: No. 11: David Koch. In: The Chronicle of Philanthropy. February 12, 2013, accessed August 26, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Kenneth Garger: David Koch's donations helped positively shape New York City. In: New York Post . August 23, 2019, accessed on September 12, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Fang Block: David Koch's Philanthropic Legacy. In: Penta. August 23, 2019, accessed on September 12, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Melanie Grayce West, John McCormick: Billionaire David Koch, Who Used His Wealth to Reshape US Politics, Dies at 79. Industrialist backed conservative causes and candidates; he also donated more than $ 1.3 billion to charity. In: The Wall Street Journal . August 23, 2019, accessed on September 12, 2019 .
  17. ↑ "David Koch Built a Toxic Empire - with Human Consequences" Rolling Stone Magazine of August 23, 2019
  18. ↑ Jeet Heer: "Even David Koch's Philanthropy Was Toxic" The Nation
  19. ↑ Jane Mayer: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Doubleday, New York 2016, p. 57 f.
  20. ↑ Jane Mayer: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Doubleday, New York 2016, pp. 142 f.
  21. ↑ Jane Mayer: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. Doubleday, New York 2016. pp. 139 f.
  22. ^ How the Koch Brothers Are Killing Public Transit Projects Around the Country , New York Times, June 19, 2018
  23. ^ Justin Farrell: Corporate funding and ideological polarization about climate change. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113, No. 1, 2015, pp. 92-97, doi: 10.1073 / pnas.1509433112 .
    Riley E. Dunlap, Aaron M. McCright: Organized Climate Change Denial. In: John S. Dryzek, Richard B. Norgaard, David Schlosberg (Eds.): The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 144-160, especially p. 149.
  24. ↑ Michael E. Mann , Tom Toles: The madhouse effect. How climate change denial threatens our planet, destroys our politics and drives us insane . Erlangen 2018, pp. 121–126, especially 122 f.
  25. ^ Koch Industries: Secretly Funding the Climate Denial Machine. In: Greenpeace . Retrieved on August 24, 2019 .
  26. ↑ # 7 Charles Koch. In: Forbes. Retrieved December 10, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Koch, David H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koch, David Hamilton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Wichita , Kansas
DATE OF DEATH 23 August 2019
Place of death Southampton, Hamptons , New York