Robert L. Koch Sr.

Chairman of Board of Directors
George Koch Sons, Inc.

Laureate 2008

Robert L. Koch was a prominent businessman who helped grow his family's company and its subsidiaries. He led the campaign that raised more than $1 million to buy property for the University of Southern Indiana campus. He encouraged the state to locate a medical school at USI and the University of Evansville. Koch was chairman of the board of directors and past president of George Koch Sons, Inc. When he stepped down as chief executive at the company, he continued to work long hours, spending mornings at subsidiary Gibbs Die Casting Aluminum Corp. in Henderson and later hours in the Evansville office.

He served on the boards of many Evansville businesses and organizations including Citizens National Bank (Fifth Third), Southern Indiana Gas and Electric Co. (Vectren), Metropolitan Evansville Chamber of Commerce, and Deaconess Hospital. He also served as chairman of the board of directors of Southern Indiana Higher Education, the group that purchased the future University of Southern Indiana property. He donated $1 million dollars to University of Evansville for its new library building, and was a life trustee of UE. He also was director of Evansville Future Inc., an organization that helped lead the community's economic comeback in the 1960s.

A strong supporter of the local universities, Koch was awarded the Medal of Honor from University of Evansville in 1972, an honorary doctor of law degree from University of Southern Indiana in 1973 and UE in 1985, and an Alumnus Award from UE in 1985 and USI in 1989.