Following in his father’s footsteps, David earned a bachelor’s as well as a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He’s worked hard his whole life and his generosity is legendary, with contributions and pledges that exceed $1 billion. Cancer research, medical centers, educational institutions, arts and cultural institutions and public policy organizations benefit from his largesse.
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is fascination with science and medicine is discernible in his sprawling office. On a side table sit plastic models of an artificial knee and shoulder that have more than academic interest for him; they are actual replicas of his own limbs. “I have three of these artificial joints. I tore one knee up playing basketball, and a knee and a different shoulder playing rugby,” David explains. He sounds almost like those painful injuries were worth it: He points out proudly that he captained one of the greatest basketball squads in MIT’s history. His sons seem equally talented on the playing field and Koch’s admiration for them is obvious as he describes their athletic prowess. His older boy, David Jr. a high school freshman, plays left field for his school baseball team. His younger son, John Mark, in elementary school, had bested 48 contemporaries in a track race the day before this interview.
votes,” he states with a laugh. Lately, his political ambitions have taken a backseat to his top priority—funding cancer research. David Koch has personal experience in this arena: In 1991, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. “I was in bad shape,” he recalls. Radiation therapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center started immediately. “The cancer went away and then came back,” he says. “I then had surgery at New YorkPresbyterian Hospital. Again, my cancer went away and came back.” Today, he is on a new medication called Zytiga. “It’s working great. I feel like I’m going to live forever. Best of all, I am now cancer free.” It was when this latest bout of cancer hit that Koch, in his own words, “became a crusader to provide research funding. “I called Paul Marks, president of Memorial Sloan Kettering at the time, and said I’d like to offer a million dollars a year to dramatically accelerate the research here that is being done on prostate cancer. [Marks] replied, ‘I’m embarrassed to tell you we aren’t doing any prostate cancer research here.’” That changed, with Koch’s donation. “Today, there are about 200 people doing such research,” he says. David’s philanthropy—in addition to prostate cancer research— supports a $1 million-a-year academic chair for a laboratory leader. This funding has allowed for clinical trials for Yervoy, an immunotherapy drug designed to activate the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. Yervoy has shown success in treating melanoma, kidney cancer, leukemia and other cancers. “Koch’s support has lead to this very significant breakthrough,” says Dr. Peter Scardino, chair of the Department of Surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “His contributions give us huge leverage to explore research avenues that have led to many discoveries. Although he is enthusiastically supportive, he is not at all directive. He never makes any requirements on how the money should be spent.”
“His contributions and pledges exceed $1 billion to cancer research, medical, educational and arts and cultural institutions and public policy organizations.” Koch’s daughter, Mary Julia, an accomplished ballerina, attended the School of American Ballet. “She danced with the New York City Ballet at Koch Theater over a dozen times,” Julia says, beaming. “We were thrilled. One day she will be able to tell her daughters and granddaughters she danced on that stage. It was a dramatic experience for us.” It was because of his own childhood experiences that Koch first became interested in the American Museum of Natural History. As a teenager, David toured the AMNH with his parents, a memory that left a lasting impression, “I was 14 and toured the dinosaur halls and dioramas. I thought they were just fantastic,” he recalls. “I love natural history museums and learned that the AMNH needed some funding, which I provided. The museum has improved hugely over what it was. I’m very proud my name is on those dinosaur halls.” As a thank-you, the museum presented David with a crystal replica of a Brontosaurus that he displays on a coffee table. It joins other curiosities in his office, including a bronze cast of a three million-yearold skull that the Smithsonian gave him after he donated $15 million to build the David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins at the National Museum of Natural History. A toddler’s wooden chair, a gift from MIT, was another thank-you, for the $20 million he donated to build a child-care facility there after learning the institution was losing researchers because of inadequate child-care facilities. The baby chair sits under a framed 1980 ballot from when David ran for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket. “I got a million 50 | AVENUE MAGAZINE • OCTOBER 2014
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o date, David has donated $66.7 million to MSKCC. Among his other contributions are: $20 million to Johns Hopkins University for the David H. Koch Cancer Research Center; $25 million to MD Anderson Cancer Center for the David H. Koch Center for Applied Research of Genitourinary Cancers; and $100 million to MIT for the David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. In total, he has contributed and pledged more than $700 million for cancer research and for the construction of facilities for the treatment of patients suffering from cancer. “Cancer research is the ultimate nonpartisan cause that Democrats, Republicans and Independents all ‘get,’” David maintains. Why not put all his resources into one medical institution? He explains that his strategy is similar to how he placed a winning bet on the Kentucky Derby many years ago: “I bet on every horse in the race. I have used the same strategy to support all these research programs.” Cancer hasn’t been David’s only scrape with death. On February 1, 1991, he was on US Airways Flight 1493 when it touched down in Los Angeles, colliding with a SkyWest commuter plane on the runway. The Boeing 737 veered off the runway crashing into an abandoned building. Fourteen people died on the commuter plane and 21 on the US Airways aircraft. An overworked air traffic controller had mistakenly directed the commuter plane onto the active runway, it was later revealed.