Karl William Koch III, of Oyster Bay, whose family's steel business helped build the World Trade Center, dies at 94

The steel-erecting business owned by the family of Karl William Koch III created such iconic structures as the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and the World Trade Center.

And Koch had a front-row seat as future owner and officer of the Karl Koch Erecting Company, a firm woven into architectural history.

Koch, of Oyster Bay, died of natural causes on July 19. He was 94.

After the Twin Towers collapsed, Koch and his friend Rick Firstman, of Manhattan, stood at Ground Zero one week after 9/11.

"I’ll never forget the pain on his face as he stood there amid the rubble. It devastated him in a way that went beyond the grief we all felt," Firstman said. "Those buildings were intensely personal to him, and he carried this terrible feeling that because he and his family had put them up he somehow bore responsibility for the people who died there."

Besides carrying on the business founded by his father and grandfather in the 1920s, Koch took risky adventures, such as being late to his 80th birthday party because he jumped out of a plane to mark the occasion.

"He was a great man and father. He was honest and his compass was God," said Koch’s daughter, Vivian Mason of Greensboro, North Carolina. "He always took the high road and always made sure to help those who needed it."

Karl William Koch III was born on May 9, 1932, in Douglaston, Queens. He was the first of eight children and grew up with a Catholic education.

After he graduated from the Manhattan College of Engineering, Koch served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He met his wife, Vivian Sullivan, in 1957 at a dance at the Riviera Club in Port Washington.

"He went home and told his brother, ‘That’s the girl I’m going to marry,’ " Mason said of her parents, who were married on May 28, 1960, and moved to Manhasset to raise their five children: Vivian; Karl William IV, John David Mountain, Jill Ann and Cynthia. 

"He provided us with a beautiful, loving childhood and was always our greatest supporter," Jill Ann D’Angelo, of Port Washington, said of her father, who spent summers on the East End waters with his children. "We spent our days boating, fishing, clamming and collecting shells and beach glass. Our nights were filled with sunsets, bonfires, summer lightning storms and stargazing. As the youngest of five children, he always introduced me as his little caboose. Even as an adult, I still loved to hear him say it."

When he was 35, Koch suffered a near fatal work injury when his legs were crushed by a crane. According to Mason, her father’s legs were cut and reattached, and he learned how to walk again with the aid of her mother after spending one year in the hospital.

"He was our role model. He was mentally and physically a very strong man," Mason said. "He lived a full life of unconditional love."

"Grandpa embodied true strength, and authored a legacy that can undoubtedly be revered as a life well lived," said Koch’s grandson, Brian Murray, of Port Washington. 

In 2002, Koch and Firstman co-authored the book "Men of Steel: The Story of the Family that Built the World Trade Center," Firstman said.

Firstman recalled his friend as a "natural storyteller" who had "both a steel man’s fearlessness and a writer’s sensibility."

According to Mason, Koch later sold his shares in the family company and became a steel estimator. He formed Karl Koch Consulting in the 1990s and eventually left the steel industry to become an entrepreneur, investing in startups and backing iconic motion pictures.

"He had a lot of failed investments but one day he came home and told my mother that he invested in a film called ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show.’ That investment saved our family’s house and allowed us to stay in college," Mason said.

Koch loved to paint and draw as well as write poetry for his wife. He also enjoyed reading, singing, playing the guitar and living his Catholic faith through charity work.

"Dad always made sure that everyone stopped for a moment to taste something wonderful, view something beautiful, or listen to the rhythm of the waves on the shore. He taught us to use all of our senses to experience life and to be grateful that we could," D’Angelo said.

"He was a man of unwavering loyalty, deep Catholic faith, and extraordinary strength," Mason said. "He would want to be remembered as someone who always tried to do the right thing in the eyes of God."

In addition to Mason and D’Angelo, Koch is survived by his children Karl William Koch IV of Mineola, Cynthia Edwards and John David Mountain Koch of Oyster Bay; six grandchildren; and two great grandchildren. His wife, Vivian, died in 2021.

A funeral Mass was celebrated on July 28 at Church of St. Mary in Manhasset followed by a burial at Calverton National Cemetery.