Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty by Daniel Schulman
Authors: Daniel Schulman
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Varner as its soul, the pair became a formidable management team—and occasional partners in crime.
While Charles pushed for expansion, his father focused on conserving capital to pay his estate taxes. In one case, when Charles sought his father’s sign off to buy two North Dakota trucking companies, Fred approved the purchase of just one of them. When Fred left on a trip, Charles and Varner went ahead and bought both companies anyway. “When I informed him of this,” Charles recalled, “my father was initially furious, but eventually forgave us since both acquisitions ended up being highly profitable.” In 1966, Fred named Charles president of Rock Island Oil and Refining “so that, as he put it, if something happened to him, I would be in charge.”
During the mid-1960s, Fred had been in and out of the hospitalwith heart trouble. He suffered a major heart attack in mid-1967 that left him hospitalized for two months. Not long after he was released, the industrialist cajoled his doctor for clearance to go hunting, which the physician finally granted.
That November, Fred accompanied his close friend R. C. “Mac” McCormick, owner of Wichita’s Broadview Hotel, on a hunting excursion to Utah. On November 17, Fred was in a duck blind near the Bear River, accompanied by a gun loader. He hadn’t shot well all day. When a solitary duck flew overhead, Fred tracked the bird with the muzzle of his shotgun. He aimed, then squeezed the trigger. The bird stopped in mid-flight and fell from the sky.
“Boy, that was a magnificent shot,” the industrialist managed to say. Then he collapsed.
CHAPTER FIVE
Successor
“His death threw responsibility for his interests on one of his four sons, Charles,” read Fred’s obituary, two days later, in
The Wichita Eagle
. The claim was accurate, but it understated the reality. In an instant, Charles had hurtled from his father’s protégé to his successor. Now Charles, who had just turned thirty-two, ruled the empire. He was petrified.
Fred had effectively turned the company over to his son a year earlier, but had remained close at hand to provide advice and instruction, even if Charles ignored it. He had been his son’s backstop and sounding board. Now Charles alone held the family’s future in his hands.
The Monday after Fred’s death was clear and temperate. Shortly before 2:30 p.m. mourners gathered in the chapel of the sterile-looking Downing & Lahey Mortuary, a short drive from the Koch family’s home. Friends, family, and business associates packed the pews. Some of Fred’s John Birch Society pals, including Clarence Manion, onetime dean of Notre Dame’s law school and a popular right-wing radio host, traveled from out of town to pay their respects.
“A man of modesty, he was never impressed with flattery,” eulogized Pastor Rang Morgan, of Wichita’s Sharon Baptist Church, at the service. “He used to say to me, ‘Rang, flattery is much like perfume. It’s o.k. to inhale it; but don’t ever swallow it.’ ”
The pastor referred briefly to Fred’s crusade against communism, saying, “I’m sure that Fred Koch had enemies for no man makes such a stand for that which is right as he did, without making enemies along the way.
“One had only to be associated with this man for a short while to know how he felt about his business,” he went on. “He felt that there were no short cuts to success; and that no business could be successful unless there was a total loyalty from all associated with it.”
After their father’s funeral, Bill, Charles, and David boarded a small plane, flew up above the Flint Hills, and scattered their father’s ashes above the rolling acreage of his beloved Spring Creek Ranch.
Later, while setting his father’s affairs in order, Charles unearthed a letter Fred had written on a cold January day in 1936, two months after Charles’s birth and when Frederick was three. He told his sons that they would one day inherit a “large
While Charles pushed for expansion, his father focused on conserving capital to pay his estate taxes. In one case, when Charles sought his father’s sign off to buy two North Dakota trucking companies, Fred approved the purchase of just one of them. When Fred left on a trip, Charles and Varner went ahead and bought both companies anyway. “When I informed him of this,” Charles recalled, “my father was initially furious, but eventually forgave us since both acquisitions ended up being highly profitable.” In 1966, Fred named Charles president of Rock Island Oil and Refining “so that, as he put it, if something happened to him, I would be in charge.”
During the mid-1960s, Fred had been in and out of the hospitalwith heart trouble. He suffered a major heart attack in mid-1967 that left him hospitalized for two months. Not long after he was released, the industrialist cajoled his doctor for clearance to go hunting, which the physician finally granted.
That November, Fred accompanied his close friend R. C. “Mac” McCormick, owner of Wichita’s Broadview Hotel, on a hunting excursion to Utah. On November 17, Fred was in a duck blind near the Bear River, accompanied by a gun loader. He hadn’t shot well all day. When a solitary duck flew overhead, Fred tracked the bird with the muzzle of his shotgun. He aimed, then squeezed the trigger. The bird stopped in mid-flight and fell from the sky.
“Boy, that was a magnificent shot,” the industrialist managed to say. Then he collapsed.
CHAPTER FIVE
Successor
“His death threw responsibility for his interests on one of his four sons, Charles,” read Fred’s obituary, two days later, in
The Wichita Eagle
. The claim was accurate, but it understated the reality. In an instant, Charles had hurtled from his father’s protégé to his successor. Now Charles, who had just turned thirty-two, ruled the empire. He was petrified.
Fred had effectively turned the company over to his son a year earlier, but had remained close at hand to provide advice and instruction, even if Charles ignored it. He had been his son’s backstop and sounding board. Now Charles alone held the family’s future in his hands.
The Monday after Fred’s death was clear and temperate. Shortly before 2:30 p.m. mourners gathered in the chapel of the sterile-looking Downing & Lahey Mortuary, a short drive from the Koch family’s home. Friends, family, and business associates packed the pews. Some of Fred’s John Birch Society pals, including Clarence Manion, onetime dean of Notre Dame’s law school and a popular right-wing radio host, traveled from out of town to pay their respects.
“A man of modesty, he was never impressed with flattery,” eulogized Pastor Rang Morgan, of Wichita’s Sharon Baptist Church, at the service. “He used to say to me, ‘Rang, flattery is much like perfume. It’s o.k. to inhale it; but don’t ever swallow it.’ ”
The pastor referred briefly to Fred’s crusade against communism, saying, “I’m sure that Fred Koch had enemies for no man makes such a stand for that which is right as he did, without making enemies along the way.
“One had only to be associated with this man for a short while to know how he felt about his business,” he went on. “He felt that there were no short cuts to success; and that no business could be successful unless there was a total loyalty from all associated with it.”
After their father’s funeral, Bill, Charles, and David boarded a small plane, flew up above the Flint Hills, and scattered their father’s ashes above the rolling acreage of his beloved Spring Creek Ranch.
Later, while setting his father’s affairs in order, Charles unearthed a letter Fred had written on a cold January day in 1936, two months after Charles’s birth and when Frederick was three. He told his sons that they would one day inherit a “large
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