Mary Margaret Olohan |Social Issues Reporter
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Billionaire David Hamilton Koch died at age 79 after fighting prostate cancer for 27 years.
Older brother Charles Koch announced his brother’s death in a Friday statement. The late Koch retired from his duties at Koch Industries due to health complications in 2018 and is survived by his wife Julia Koch and three children.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my brother David,” Koch said in a statement. “Anyone who worked with David surely experienced his giant personality and passion for life.” (RELATED: Libertarian Heavyweight David Koch Is Stepping Down From Politics)
Koch explained that brother David Koch was diagnosed with prostate cancer 27 years ago and told he only had a few years to live.
“David liked to say that a combination of brilliant doctors, state-of-the-art medications and his own stubbornness kept the cancer at bay,” Koch said. “We can all be grateful that it did, because he was able to touch so many more lives as a result.”
Koch attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology beginning in 1959, earning both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering. He joined the family business Koch Engineering, which would later become the Koch Chemical Technology Group (KCTG), and became president of the company in 1979.
Koch later founded the non-profit organization known today as Americans for Prosperity with American businessman Richard Fink.
Following a 1991 near-death experience on a USAir flight that collided with another plane after landing at in Los Angeles, Koch turned his billions towards philanthropy. He also discovered that he had prostate cancer about a year after this near-death experience.
“I was amazed that I had survived this accident. Thinking back on it later, I felt that the good Lord was sitting on my shoulder and that He helped save my life because He wanted me to do good works and become a good citizen,” David said to Barbara Walters in 2014.
“Following that revelation, I became tremendously philanthropic, and I intend to continue being very philanthropic the rest of my life.”
The late Koch has pledged and contributed over $1.3 billion to public policy, cancer research, and medical organizations as well as educational, art, and cultural institutions.
His largest donations have been to medical research centers and patient facilities, including MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Koch married wife Julia Flesher in 1996, with whom he had three children, David Jr., Mary Julia, and John.
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