American wood scientist
Peter Koch (October 15, 1920 – February 14, 1998) was an American engineer and wood scientist who was considered an expert in the field of wood technology by his peers. From 1963 to 1982, Koch led a team of US Forest Service scientists in forest products utilization research specific to forests of the southeastern US. Accomplishments by Koch and his research team included eight US patents plus hundreds of research publications.
Biography.
Peter Koch was the youngest of 3 sons born to Elers and Gerda (Heiberg-Jurgensen) Koch in Missoula, Montana. In 1942, he graduated from Montana State College of Agriculture and Engineering at Bozeman with a degree in mechanical engineering. After graduation, Koch enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps as a pilot, mostly flying bombers over the hump into China from 1942 to 1946, attaining the rank of captain.
From 1946 to 1952, Koch worked in Washington (state) at Stetson-Ross Machine Company – a company that designs lumber processing machinery. In 1950, Koch married Doris Ann Hagen. In 1952, he enrolled in graduate school at the University of Washington and received a PhD in wood technology in 1954. Afterwards, Koch taught at Michigan State University (1955–1957) and was vice-president of a hardwood lumber producer – the Champlin Company – in Rochester, New Hampshire (1957–1963).
Forest Service research.
By the 1960s, there was concern by timber industries in the South about the lack of forest product utilization research into the use of smaller trees that had replaced the virgin pine forests. To address that concern, the US Forest Service recruited Peter Koch in 1963 to head a newly formed wood utilization research program at the Southern Forest Experiment Station in Pineville, Louisiana. One of the first staff members enlisted by Koch was Chung-Yun Hse, a young graduate student of Taiwanese descent, to focus on adhesives for gluing southern pine plywood. During his tenure, Koch and his staff of scientists generated the following technological advancements:
In 1982, Koch returned to Montana and served as chief wood scientist at the Forest Service Intermountain Research Station in Missoula until 1985. In 1985, Koch established his own corporation – Wood Science Laboratory, Inc. – in Corvallis, Montana. In 1996, Koch produced his last publication – a thousand-page tome on lodgepole pine based on more than a decade of research.
Death.
Peter Koch died February 14, 1998, in Missoula, Montana.
References.
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