Leo Francis Koch (February 8, 1916 – November 14, 1982) was an American academic. An

Assistant Professor Assistant professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doct ...

of biology at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...

, he was fired for promoting

premarital sex Premarital sex is sex before marriage. It is an act of sex between two people who are not married to each other. Premarital sex is considered a sin by a number of religions and also considered a moral issue which is taboo in many cultures. S ...

Early life

Leo Francis Koch was born on February 8, 1916, in

Dickinson, North Dakota Dickinson is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 25,679 at the 2020 census, making it the seventh most populous city in North Dakota. Dickinson, founded in 1881, is also home to Dickins ...

. He received a master's degree and a PhD in Biology from the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

Career

Koch taught biology at the

California State University, Fresno California State University, Fresno (Fresno State) is a public university in Fresno, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. The university had a fall 2020 enrollment of 25,341 students. It offers 60 ba ...

and

California State University, Bakersfield California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB, Cal State Bakersfield, or CSU Bakersfield) is a public university in Bakersfield, California. It was established in 1965 as Kern State College and officially in 1968 as California State College Ba ...

. Later, he was an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Illinois. In 1960, he wrote a letter to the ''

Daily Illini Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'' defending

provoked public outrage in response to an article in the ''Daily Illini'' criticizing campus heavy petting parties. His response said in part:

...the events described are... symptoms of a serious social malaise... caused by the hypocritical and downright inhumane moral standards engendered by a Christian code... already decrepit in the age of Queen Victoria... With modern contraceptives and medical advice readily available... there is no valid reason why sexual intercourse should not be condoned among those sufficiently mature to engage in it without social consequences and without violating their own codes of morality and ethics. ..A mutually satisfactory sexual experience would eliminate the need for many hours of frustrating petting and lead to happier and longer lasting marriages among our young men and women.

As a result, David Dodds Henry, the President of the University of Illinois, fired him. Henry called the letter "offensive and repugnant." The UI Board of Trustees supported Henry, as did

Lyle H. Lanier Lyle H. Lanier (January 11, 1903 – December 30, 1988) was an American experimental psychologist and writer. As a faculty member at Vanderbilt University from 1929 to 1938, Lanier published research comparing the mental abilities of whites and b ...

, who served as the Dean of its College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, while the University of Illinois Senate voted to reprimand Koch but not to censure him. The firing and Koch's subsequent battle to be reinstated became a sensation in the press. Illinois was censured by the

American Association of University Professors The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is an organization of professors and other academics in the United States that was founded in 1915 in New York City and is currently headquartered in Washington, D.C. AAUP membership inc ...

for the ouster. Koch appealed to the

Illinois Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the judiciary of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the fiv ...

and the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

, which both refused to grant him a hearing. Following his dismissal from Illinois, Koch met

free love Free love is a social movement that accepts all forms of love. The movement's initial goal was to separate the State (polity), state from sexual and romantic matters such as marriage, birth control, and adultery. It stated that such issues we ...

advocate Jefferson Poland, and together they founded the

Sexual Freedom League The Sexual Freedom League (SFL) was an organization founded in 1963 in New York City by Jefferson Poland and Leo Koch. It existed under the name New York City League for Sexual Freedom to promote and conduct sexual activity among its members and ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

.Allyn (2000), 43-44. According to reference below, he landed a position at Blake College, a small liberal arts school on the outskirts of Mexico City, where he edited Mushroom Digest, a bulletin on growing mushrooms. When he left the U of Illinois, he left behind all his plant research, including an incredible collection of more than 8,000 plant samples. With help from other experts around the country, U of I have identified much of the collection but a third of the liverworts and hornworts have not yet been identified.

Personal life

Koch was married. He had two sons and a daughter.

References

* https://las.illinois.edu/news/magazine - Fall 2022 issue

Early life

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading