Remembering David H Koch

I first met David Koch 40 years ago when he ran for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1980. Although I am a life long registered Republican, my philosophical leanings are libertarian and I usually follow libertarian candidates. In this race David had little chance of winning, but he was always willing to invest his personal resources to promote his libertarian views. He did this throughout his life and I admired him for doing so as he always did it a very calm and thoughtful manner. Consequently, I believe he was extremely effective in advancing these limited government views.

But, in addition to David’s effective advancement of libertarian views, he was also one of America’s most generous philanthropists. I first became aware of his generosity here in Arizona when I learned that he was on the board of the Institute of Human Origins, Don Johanson’s group that discovered Lucy. David was a significant contributor to IHO, but I also began to notice David Koch’s name on many other large donations and, significantly, these were donations that went to arts, humanities, and medicine. Sadly, these donations never received the same media attention that was given to his political donations.

When you combine the results of his life of giving, I believe he emerges as one of the most influential figures of the past 50 years. I will remember him fondly.