Fred C. Koch
Encyclopedia
Fred Chase Koch was an American
chemical engineer
and entrepreneur
who founded the oil refinery
firm that later became Koch Industries
, the second-largest privately-held company in the United States.
, the son of Mattie B. (née Mixson) and a Dutch immigrant, Harry Koch
. Harry began working as a printer’s apprentice in Workum
, Netherlands
. He worked over a year at printers shops in The Hague and in Germany before coming to the U.S. in 1888, and owned the Tribune-Chief newspaper. Fred attended Rice Institute
in Houston from 1917 to 1919, and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) in 1922, where he obtained a degree in Chemical Engineering Practice.
, and later became chief engineer with the Medway Oil & Storage Company on the Isle of Grain
in Kent, England. In 1925 he joined a fellow MIT classmate, P.C. Keith, at Keith-Winkler Engineering in Wichita, Kansas
. Following the departure of Keith in 1925, the firm became Winkler-Koch Engineering Company.
In 1927, Koch developed a more efficient thermal cracking
process for turning crude oil into gasoline. This process led to bigger yields and helped smaller, independent oil companies compete. The larger oil companies instantly sued and filed 44 different lawsuits against Koch. Koch won all but one of the lawsuits. (That verdict was later overturned when it was revealed that the judge had been bribed.)
Nevertheless, this litigation effectively put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U.S. for several years. Koch turned his focus to foreign markets, including the Soviet Union
, where Winkler-Koch built 15 cracking units between 1929 and 1932. The company also built installations in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In the early 1930s, Winkler-Koch hosted Soviet technicians for training. The contract that Winkler-Koch signed with the Soviet government paid the company $5 million.
Having succeeded in securing the family fortune, Koch joined new partners in 1940 to create the Wood River Oil and Refining Company, which is today known as Koch Industries. In 1946 the firm acquired the Rock Island refinery and crude oil gathering system near Duncan, Oklahoma
. Wood River was later renamed the Rock Island Oil and Refining Company. In 1966 he turned over day-to-day management of the company to his son, Charles Koch.
and Joseph Stalin
's regime, writing in his 1960 book, A Business Man Looks at Communism, that he found the Soviet Union to be "a land of hunger, misery, and terror".
During his time in the Soviet Union, he toured the countryside with his handler Jerome Livshitz. Livshitz gave Fred Koch what he would call a "liberal education in Communist techniques and methods" and Koch grew persuaded that the Soviet threat needed to be countered in America.
According to his son, Charles, “Many of the Soviet engineers he worked with were longtime Bolsheviks who had helped bring on the revolution.” It deeply bothered Fred Koch that so many of those so committed to the Communist cause were later purged.
He was one of the founding members of the John Birch Society
.
in 1932. They had four sons, Frederick
(b. 1933), Charles (b. 1935), and twins David
(b. 1940) and William
(b. 1940). For the ore
/oil tanker
named after Fred's wife, see Mary R. Koch
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
chemical engineer
Chemical engineer
In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is the profession in which one works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products, and deals with the design and operation of plants and equipment to perform such work...
and entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
who founded the oil refinery
Oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...
firm that later became Koch Industries
Koch Industries
Koch Industries, Inc. , is an American private energy conglomerate based in Wichita, Kansas, with subsidiaries involved in manufacturing, trading and investments. Koch also owns Invista, Georgia-Pacific, Flint Hills Resources, Koch Pipeline, Koch Fertilizer, Koch Minerals and Matador Cattle Company...
, the second-largest privately-held company in the United States.
Early life and education
Fred C. Koch was born in Quanah, TexasQuanah, Texas
Quanah is a city in and the county seat of Hardeman County, Texas, United States, northwest of Fort Worth, and a few miles from the Oklahoma-Texas state line...
, the son of Mattie B. (née Mixson) and a Dutch immigrant, Harry Koch
Harry Koch (businessman)
Harry Koch was a Dutch immigrant to the US who settled in Quanah, Texas in 1888. He is the founder of the newspaper, Quanah Tribune-Chief. He was a founding shareholder of the Quanah, Acme and Pacific Railway. He was father of Fred C. Koch , founder of Koch Industries.External links*References...
. Harry began working as a printer’s apprentice in Workum
Workum
Workum is the largest town of Nijefurd in Friesland. It received city rights in 1374. It lies within the municipality of Nijefurd. Currently has around 4000 inhabitants....
, Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. He worked over a year at printers shops in The Hague and in Germany before coming to the U.S. in 1888, and owned the Tribune-Chief newspaper. Fred attended Rice Institute
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
in Houston from 1917 to 1919, and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
(MIT) in 1922, where he obtained a degree in Chemical Engineering Practice.
Business career
Koch started his career with the Texas Company in Port Arthur, TexasPort Arthur, Texas
-Demographics:As of the 2000 census, there were 57,755 people, 21,839 households, and 14,675 families residing in the city. The population density was 696.5 people per square mile . There were 24,713 housing units at an average density of 298.0 per square mile...
, and later became chief engineer with the Medway Oil & Storage Company on the Isle of Grain
Isle of Grain
The Isle of Grain, in the north of Kent, England, is the easternmost point of the Hoo Peninsula. No longer an island, the Isle is almost all marshland and the Grain Marshes are an important habitat for birdlife...
in Kent, England. In 1925 he joined a fellow MIT classmate, P.C. Keith, at Keith-Winkler Engineering in Wichita, Kansas
Wichita, Kansas
Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
. Following the departure of Keith in 1925, the firm became Winkler-Koch Engineering Company.
In 1927, Koch developed a more efficient thermal cracking
Cracking (chemistry)
In petroleum geology and chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules such as kerogens or heavy hydrocarbons are broken down into simpler molecules such as light hydrocarbons, by the breaking of carbon-carbon bonds in the precursors. The rate of cracking and the end products...
process for turning crude oil into gasoline. This process led to bigger yields and helped smaller, independent oil companies compete. The larger oil companies instantly sued and filed 44 different lawsuits against Koch. Koch won all but one of the lawsuits. (That verdict was later overturned when it was revealed that the judge had been bribed.)
Nevertheless, this litigation effectively put Winkler-Koch out of business in the U.S. for several years. Koch turned his focus to foreign markets, including the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, where Winkler-Koch built 15 cracking units between 1929 and 1932. The company also built installations in countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia. In the early 1930s, Winkler-Koch hosted Soviet technicians for training. The contract that Winkler-Koch signed with the Soviet government paid the company $5 million.
Having succeeded in securing the family fortune, Koch joined new partners in 1940 to create the Wood River Oil and Refining Company, which is today known as Koch Industries. In 1946 the firm acquired the Rock Island refinery and crude oil gathering system near Duncan, Oklahoma
Duncan, Oklahoma
Duncan is a city in Stephens County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 23,431 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Stephens County.The official birthdate of the town is considered to be when the first train arrived there on June 27, 1892...
. Wood River was later renamed the Rock Island Oil and Refining Company. In 1966 he turned over day-to-day management of the company to his son, Charles Koch.
Political views
During his time in the Soviet Union, Koch came to despise communismCommunism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
's regime, writing in his 1960 book, A Business Man Looks at Communism, that he found the Soviet Union to be "a land of hunger, misery, and terror".
During his time in the Soviet Union, he toured the countryside with his handler Jerome Livshitz. Livshitz gave Fred Koch what he would call a "liberal education in Communist techniques and methods" and Koch grew persuaded that the Soviet threat needed to be countered in America.
According to his son, Charles, “Many of the Soviet engineers he worked with were longtime Bolsheviks who had helped bring on the revolution.” It deeply bothered Fred Koch that so many of those so committed to the Communist cause were later purged.
He was one of the founding members of the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
.
Family life
Fred C. Koch married Mary Robinson in Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
in 1932. They had four sons, Frederick
Frederick R. Koch
Frederick Robinson Koch is an American collector and philanthropist, the eldest of the four sons born to American industrialist Fred C. Koch, founder of what is now Koch Industries, and Mary Robinson Koch...
(b. 1933), Charles (b. 1935), and twins David
David H. Koch
David Hamilton Koch is an American businessman, philanthropist, political activist, and chemical engineer. He is a co-owner and an executive vice president of Koch Industries, a conglomerate that is the second-largest privately held company in the U.S...
(b. 1940) and William
Bill Koch (businessman)
William Ingraham "Bill" Koch is an American businessman, sailor, and collector. His boat was the winner of the America's Cup in 1992. His last name is pronounced "coke." Per Forbes William Koch's net worth was $3.4 billion in 2010 on oil and other investments-Early life and business...
(b. 1940). For the ore
Bulk carrier
A bulk carrier, bulk freighter, or bulker is a merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, and cement in its cargo holds. Since the first specialized bulk carrier was built in 1852, economic forces have fueled the development of these ships,...
/oil tanker
Oil tanker
An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a merchant ship designed for the bulk transport of oil. There are two basic types of oil tankers: the crude tanker and the product tanker. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined crude oil from its point of extraction to refineries...
named after Fred's wife, see Mary R. Koch
Mary R. Koch
The Mary R. Koch was a 274.330 t combined ore carrier and oil tanker. The ship was named after Mary Robinson Koch, wife of American industrialist Fred C. Koch....
.
External links
- Kansas Business Hall of Fame Historical Honors Award Recipient profile