Richard Koch Family Collection

Richard Frederick Koch (born 1920), nicknamed "Dickie," was the son of Richard S. and Stella Dreyfus Koch. He grew up in Cedarhurst, New York, and graduated from Lawrence High School in 1936. He studied engineering at Bard College and graduated in 1940. He briefly taught at Columbia University before joining the Army. In 1942, he married Janet Doris Koch (1917-1997, née Phillips). Their children are Richard P. (Terry) Koch and Lewis Koch.

When World War Two broke out, Koch joined the United States Army's Signal Corps as a second lieutenant. After radar electronics training at Fort Monmouth, he was posted to England as a United States observer from September 1941 to March 1942. In June 1942, he was transferred to the Signal Corps Radar School at Camp Murphy in Florida. Koch was on sick leave with jaundice from June-July and September-December 1943. He returned to Fort Monmouth in October 1944, with the Signal Corps Publication Agency, and was discharged in March 1946 as a first lieutenant. His top secret work in England and in Florida helped introduce radar technology to the United States.

Richard F. Koch was of German-Jewish descent. His maternal grandparents Leon and Bertha Dreyfus were immigrants, as were his paternal grandparents Nathan and Marie Dreyfus Koch. His parents, as well as many of his uncles and aunts, appear to have been able to read and write German.

Richard F. Koch's maternal grandfather, Leon Dreyfus (1842-1898), son of David Dreyfus, was born in the Bavarian town of Ingenheim, Germany, and immigrated to New Orleans in 1857. There, he joined Nathan Koch, also a recent German-Jewish immigrant, a brother-in-law, in the jewelry business. They remained in New Orleans until 1889, when they moved their business to New York City. The company folded in 1897. Leon Dreyfus's nephew Jonas Koch (circa 1859-1932), the son of his sister Marie Dreyfus Koch, was in business together with his brother Richard S. Koch.

Leon Dreyfus was married to Bertha (née Hirsch) Dreyfus (1844-1928), and they had seven children, including Richard F. Koch's mother Stella Koch, (1878-1962). Their other children were Frederick (1876-1950), Louisa (married Theodore Rostenberg), Leah (born 1882, married Samuel Landauer), Max (married Amy), Phina, and Theodore (married Rose Pforzheimer).

Richard F. Koch's mother was Stella Dreyfus Koch (1878-1962). She was married to Richard S. Koch (1876-1935), with whom she had three children, Helen A. Koch (1907-1919), Alfred N. Koch (died circa 1919), and Richard F. (1920-2012). She and her husband were doubly related as first cousins. Stella was born in New Orleans. In 1889, her father moved his family to the New York City area, and Stella completed her schooling there, including a degree obtained from Normal (now Hunter) College. She was a teacher in the New York City public schools for some time in the early 1900s, and was a longtime resident of Cedarhurst, New York. In 1905, Stella married Richard S. Koch as part of a dual ceremony in which her sister Leah Dreyfus was also married, to Samuel Landauer. A rabbi officiated the Landauer portion of the wedding, but an official from the Society of Ethical Culture married Stella and Richard, probably indicating a significant degree of assimilation on their part.

Richard F. Koch's uncle Frederick Jonas Dreyfus (1876-1950) was born in New Orleans, but his family moved to New York City thereafter and he received a bachelor's degree from the City College of New York in 1896. For twenty years, he was with Frank & Dugan, silk ribbon manufacturers in Paterson, New Jersey. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1917 and was in France during World War One as part of the 11th US engineers. From 1920 to 1933 he worked for his brother-in-law Samuel Landauer's company, SC Landauer, a surgical supply company. Dreyfus was a long-time resident of Paterson, New Jersey, and later of Cedarhurst, New York.

Richard F. Koch's wife, Janet Doris Koch (1917-1997), was the daughter of Lewis and Maude (née Simon) Phillips. Maude was from a comfortable New Orleans Jewish family, and was educated there before attending college in New York City. The family soon moved to Brookline, Massachusetts, which is where Janet grew up and attended Simmons College.

Additional family members who appear in this collection include Bertha Dreyfus's sister Johanna Hirsch; Leon Dreyfus's brother Theodore (died 1879), whose wife Marie (1852-1940) returned to Germany after his death; Charles and Minna Titche (related to the Dreyfus family); and Hermann and Julia Schwartz of Bergzabern, Germany (related to Richard S. Koch).