David H. Koch

David Hamilton Koch older and an executive vice president of Koch Industries, a conglomerate that is the second-largest privately held company in the U.S. Koch is the second-richest resident of New York City as of 2010.Koch was born in Wichita, Kansasto Mary (née Robinson) and Fred C. Koch, a chemical engineer. He is one of four siblings. He attended the Deerfield Academy prep school in Massachusetts, graduating in 1959. He went on to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), earning both a bachelor's (1962) and a master's degree (1963) in chemical engineering.Since 2000, David H. Koch Charitable Foundation have pledged or contributed more than $750 million to further cancer research, enhance medical centers, support educational institutions, sustain arts and cultural institutions, and conduct public policy studies. Since 2006, the Chronicle of Philanthropy has listed Koch as one of the world's top 50 philanthropists.In July 2008, Koch pledged $100 million over 10 years to renovate the New York State Theater in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (now called the David H. Koch Theater), and has pledged $10 million to renovate the outdoor fountains at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Koch has been a trustee of the American Ballet Theater for 25 years and has contributed more than $6 million to the theate.Koch contributed $7 million to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show Nova, and is a contributor to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., including a $20 million gift to the American Museum of Natural History, creating the David H. Koch Dinosaur Wing and a contribution of $15 million to the National Museum of Natural History to create the new David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins, which opened on the museum's 100th anniversary of its location on the National Mall on March 17, 2010.