Conservative billionaire David Koch dies at 79
Billionaire industrialist David H. Koch, who, with his older brother Charles, poured a fortune into rightwing causes, transforming the American political landscape and shaping U.S. policies on such issues as climate change, died Friday at 79.
The cause of death was not disclosed, but Koch Industries said Koch, who lived in New York City, had contended for years with various illnesses.
A chemical engineer by training, Koch was an executive in the family-run conglomerate, the Libertarian Party’s vicepresidential candidate in1980 and a major benefactor of educational, medical and cultural organizations.
But he and his brother became best known for building a political network dubbed the “Kochtopus” for its manytentacled support of conservative and libertarian causes, candidates and think tanks, including the Cato Institute.
The brothers, in 2004, founded the anti-tax, small-government group Americans for Prosperity, which remains one of the most powerful conservative organizations in U.S. politics and were an important influence on the Tea Party movement.
While celebrated on the right, the Koch brothers have been vilified by Democrats and others who see them as a dark and conspiratorial force and the corrupting influence of corporate money in U.S. politics.
“I was taught from a young age that involvement in the public discourse is a civic duty,” David Koch wrote in a 2012 op-ed in the New York Post.
“Each of us has a right — indeed, a responsibility, at times — to make his or her views known to the larger community in order to better form it as a whole. While we may not always get what we want, the exchange of ideas betters the nation in the process.”
David Koch had stepped away from a leadership role in recent years because of declining health, including a decadeslong battle with prostate cancer.
He is survived by his wife, Julia Flesher, and their three children.
On Friday, Charles Koch said of his younger brother: “The significance of David’s generosity is best captured in the words of Adam Smith, who wrote, ‘To indulge our benevolent affections constitutes the perfection of human nature.’ ”