Bob Koch                        e-mail: Robert.Koch5976@gmail.com

4108 Forder Circle Dr

St. Louis MO 63129

Home: (314) 416-1388

Cell: (724) 493-6675

Mechanical Engineering        Semi-Retired

Update 6/2018

After more than 40 years in management I have elected to step back and "semi-retire" into a business development consulting role, helping companies build their businesses and solve market presence issues - particularly in the power generation industry.  I've been doing this since last year and am happy that I no longer have to contend with the internal politics of a corporation and that I get to tell the truth to Senior Management based on facts and market trends, not on their agendas.  I'm more involved in my church as well as volunteer activities with a local food bank serving the indigent - Feed My People.  I find it as rewarding as managing a business and it provides me with a creative outlet for my itch to still contribute even in my form of retirement.  I may go into full retirement later this year, as the consulting business has seriously cut into my golf time!

My wife of 38 years retired some time ago when we moved to Saint Louis and has been active in caring for her aging father - she's lucky, as my parents passed years ago.  She drives a couple of hours to visit him twice a month and helps with his needs along with her sister.  At 92 he is still driving and living on his own!

Our children are no longer children - daughter Kristin is a Neonatal ICU Nurse at Loma Linda Children's Hospital in Riverside, CA.  Her husband Greg is in a PhD program in Microbiology at the University of California - Riverside, and they gave us our first grandchild - Julian Newkirk - who just turned 1 year old.  Needless to say we are over the moon about him and visit as often as we can (another reason to retire!).  Julian shares his parents' natural inquisitiveness and is a happy and playful boy.

Son Matt has found his niche in life outside of the Music Business.  he enrolled in a program here in St. Louis titled Launch Code, that teaches computer coding to non-technical people.  He is doing very well and expects to graduate and obtain a full time job over the summer.  Having both of them off the payroll will be a true blessing!

I look forward to seeing everyone at Reunion 2018 and catching up on your lives and plans for the future!

Original Post (2008)

HOW I’VE SPENT MY LIFE        35 YEARS IS A REALLY LONG TIME!!

When I graduated RPI I took a long vacation with Mark Schwartz – we toured the USA for 6 weeks before we both started working for Westinghouse in Pittsburgh.  It was awesome.  We stayed with relatives, camped in Yellowstone & Yosemite, visited Dave Maycheck, Howard Dellman and a few other Crockett Hall boys in ‘Vegas, where they were going to make their fortune, and fell in love numerous times on the way.  The next 10 years were all a blur!  But, I must have done alright because I made it past 30 and, given the wild life in my 20’s it’s nothing short of miraculous!  I’m sure most of you have similar memories (or lack thereof).

I spent 17 years with Westinghouse (Mark left a little sooner).  Along the way I got married to a wonderful woman in 1980, we adopted 2 children – Kristin in 1984 and Matt in 1989, lived in the Pittsburgh area, in Springfield Illinois– where I met my wife – back to Pittsburgh– where we did our adoptions - and on to Spartanburg, SC as manager of a Nuclear Equipment RepairCenter for Westinghouse.  Of course, after the nuclear industry faded, I was looking for something else, so I left Westinghouse and joined Joy Environmental Systems in Charlotte(we moved again).  With Joy I was soon appointed VP & General Manager of Services and was moved to the Philadelphia area (2 years after moving to Charlotte).  From there, things went down hill.  Joy was a financially challenged firm and was sold to Harnischfeger Industries for the mining business.  They sold the Environmental business to Diamond Power, who added their own executive tier at the expense of the Joy team – common in many buyouts.  So we packed up and moved (for a year) to Tennessee with a company in the Power business.  That didn’t work and we moved to New Jersey with Graver Water Systems.  After about 2 years the business was combined with another Marmon Group company and I got to Join Elliott Company – in Pittsburgh.  That was 1999 and thankfully we’re still in the Pittsburgh area today.

Enough of my career – my children are the light of my life and they are both taking rather unconventional paths to greatness.  Kristin is 23 and living (surviving) in San Diego.  She tried the college route at WVU for a couple of years and couldn’t figure out how to make her 8:00classes – which proved problematic.  She’s working as a teller in one branch of WAMU – one of the largest S&L’s and is really doing great things in their customer service organization.  Remind me if we get together at reunion to tell you her story of moving from Pittsburgh to San Diego– it’s hilarious!

Matt’s in an accelerated program at Full Sail in Orlando and has been getting top grades. He wants to go into Recording and Production in the Music business, and we wish him great success.  This is his passion so he’s going to be fine and go far.

Billie, the love of my life, is a teacher in the Westmoreland County school system where we live.  She teaches English as a second language to elementary students at 3 different schools and is constantly on the go.  That’s a good thing, since my job with Elliott as Manager of Field Services takes my on national and international trips with great regularity (every week).  She keeps busy with her work and several clubs she is involved with.

We really love the location – Pittsburgh is such a diverse cultural city – and the friends we’ve made.  After all our travels it’s good to be able to call a place “home”.  Of course, this has probably jinxed it and put us in position to move again!  Hopefully the next move will be to a warm climate and a golf course!

I really look forward to seeing everyone at Reunion and catching up on the last 35 years.