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Goodbye
Six Decades of DGA Service: Howard W. Koch
On Friday, February 16, 2001, former DGA Board member and Chairman of the Directors Guild Foundation, Howard W. Koch, died at his home in Beverly Hills of complications from Alzheimer's disease. He was 84.
Born in New York City on April 11, 1916, Koch went to work as a runner on Wall Street before beginning his life-long career in film when he got a job in Universal's Contract and Playdate Department in New York City. Koch then transferred to the film library at 20th Century Fox and in 1944 became a second assistant director on John M. Stahl's The Keys of the Kingdom, which served as his entry into the Guild.
Koch continued to work as an assistant director throughout the 1940s and 1950s with prominent directors such as George Cukor, Henry King, Mervyn LeRoy and Joseph L. Mankiewicz. He became a director in 1954 on the film Shield for Murder, going on to direct more than a dozen features including Big House, U.S.A. (1955), The Girl in Black Stockings (1957), Andy Hardy Comes Home (1958), The Last Mile (1959) and Badge 373 (1973). Koch also directed episodic TV series such as Maverick, Hawaiian Eye, Cheyenne and The Untouchables.
In the early 1950s, Koch formed one of the first independent production companies with his partner Aubrey Schenck. Then he became the head of Frank Sinatra's production company in 1961 where he served as the executive producer of such film classics as John Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate, Gordon Douglas' Robin and the Seven Hoods and Sinatra's None but the Brave. Koch was named president of production at Paramount Pictures in 1964, becoming the only production executive of a major film company who himself had directed movies and television. Koch also produced eight Academy Award telecasts, as well as the hit features Airplane! and Ghost.
In spite of a hugely successful and busy career, Koch was always very active in his Guild service. He joined the DGA's Assistant Directors Council in 1949 and served as Council Chair from 1951 to 1953. Koch was also a member of the Guild's Negotiating Committee in 1952, served as DGA Treasurer from 1959 to 1961, became a National Board Member in 1977, and a member of the Western Directors
Council in 1983. However, the Guild service that Koch is best known for is the work that was closest to his heart, the Directors Guild Foundation (formerly the DGA Educational & Benevolent Foundation) which assists DGA members in need by providing no-interest, short-term loans.
Koch became a trustee of the Foundation in 1952, and in 1983 replaced DGA Past President Delbert Mann as its Chairman, serving in that capacity until the time of his death. Under his guidance, the Foundation recently announced a $250,000 multi-year commitment to the Motion Picture & Television Fund which will go toward the Fund's $115 million capital campaign targeting renovation and expansion of the Country Home & Hospital on the Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills to allow them to begin reducing the current seven-year waiting list for retirement and assisted living at the facility. Koch was quite pleased to be a part of this achievement, once noting, "The work of the Motion Picture & Television Fund is a blessing for so many members of our community. It is truly gratifying to be able to help such tremendously worthy efforts." And Koch was a perennial fixture at Foundation fundraisers such as the Annual DGA Golf Tournament.
"Howard was such a compassionate man," DGA President Jack Shea said. "In the work that he did with the DGA Foundation, he was a prime mover in collecting money and making it available for members in trouble. He did this for 23 years. He loved the Guild so much."
Reflecting on Koch, DGA Past President Delbert Mann commented, "Every member and future member of the Directors Guild owes and will owe to Howard W. Koch a tremendous debt of gratitude for all of the years of work which he put into their welfare."
DGA Past President George Sidney's relationship with Koch began on the first day Koch arrived in Hollywood. "My father and his father were the closest of friends in New York," Sidney recalled, "so the place he visited when he came to California was my office to say hello to me. Our lives intermingled back and forth ever after. On the night I was elected DGA President, he was elected Chairman of the Assistant Directors Council. He was a man with scales who could weigh everything out and go through the most difficult problems and balance them all and come up with the right decision. The only thing I can say is, 'Howard, we will never miss you, because you'll always be with us.'"
"Howard and I only worked together on one film - and what a personal and professional pleasure it was! - but we worked together on many community projects," DGA Past President Arthur Hiller said. "What a devotion he had to the DGA, the Academy, and the Motion Picture & Television Fund, and what a dedication to the needs of others. If there was one person in need, Howard was available 'round the clock.'
"I've lost a dear friend who befriended me in the '60s when he was head of Paramount and I was the 'new kid.' He stayed a dear friend all these years and gave me helpful advice and moral support in my life as well as my work. He was a man to admire for his career and a man to admire for his warmth and caring. I love him and miss him so much."
"Words can scarcely express the true meaning of the loss of Howard W. Koch," DGA National Executive Director Jay D. Roth said. "His contributions to both this Guild and the film industry in general, were only matched by the size of his heart. I personally, and the Guild as a whole, will miss his wise counsel and encouragement."
The Guild honored Koch in 1991 with the Frank Capra Achievement Award, an accolade given to an assistant director or unit production manager in recognition of career achievement in the film industry and service to the DGA. He also received the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1989.
Koch is survived by his wife of 63 years, Ruth; his son, producer Howard W. "Hawk" Koch, Jr.; his daughter, Melinda Blinker; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
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