Koch had a preference of donating his money rather than “use it on buying a bigger house or a $150 million painting.” He died Aug. 23 at his home in Southampton, N.Y. He was 79.
Money where his mouth is: David Koch spent billions giving back to charity. Here’s where much of it went:
$185 million - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
$150 million - Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
It was the largest single gift the center received.
$100 million - New York-Presbyterian Hospital
$66.7 million - Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
$65 million - The Metropolitan Museum of Art
$26.5 million - M.D. Anderson Cancer
$26.2 million - The Hospital for Special Surgery in New York
$20 million - Johns Hopkins University
$10 million - Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Mount Sinai Medical Center
"Fuck Him," Bill Maher said. "I'm glad he's dead, and I hope the end was painful."
Romans One reminds us, "...they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful..."
So How did the Kochs make their billions? From Bill Hewitt at The WaPo:
'that moved the Republican Party steadily to the right' is an absurd statement, but that is a discussion for another day. Right?, Bill 'fuck him' Maher."Mr. Koch and an older brother, Charles, transformed the Wichita-based family company, which they had taken over from their father, Fred, in the 1960s, into a global conglomerate with interests in businesses from petroleum to ranching to a wide variety of consumer products, such as Dixie cups and Stainmaster carpeting.
Koch Industries became the second-largest privately held company in the United States, and by 2018, Charles and David Koch were estimated to be worth in the neighborhood of $60 billion each.
As a patron of charities, Mr. Koch ranked among the most openhanded donors of his era, disbursing more than $1 billion to cultural and medical nonprofit organizations. But it was through a network of well-financed advocacy groups that the Koch brothers achieved their greatest distinction, spreading an uncompromising anti-government gospel that moved the Republican Party steadily to the right.
They inherited a deep mistrust of big government from their father, a founding member of the arch-conservative John Birch Society. Mr. Koch said he fervently believed that minimal government led to more prosperity and freedom for all people."