Billionaire David Koch was an American businessman, political activist, and chemical engineer. He joined the family business Koch Industries in 1970, (Second-largest private company in the United States).

He was born in 1940 May 3, Died: August 23, 2019.

Billionaire and Republican donor David Koch has died at age 79, his older brother Charles Koch said on Friday. David Koch was a resident of New York. He was suffering from deteriorating health as of late, according to a letter Charles Koch sent last summer to officials with their company, Koch Industries.

David’s brother confirm the death in his statement, he said his brother was had been treated for advanced prostate cancer in the past. David liked to say that a combination of brilliant doctors, state-of-the-art medications and his own stubbornness kept cancer at bay. We can all be grateful that it did because he was able to touch so many more lives as a result, Charles Koch said.

His older brother, David Koch became one of the world’s richest person, with assets of $42.2 bn in 2019 and a 42% stake in the family enterprise, Koch Industries, a Kansas-based energy and chemicals conglomerate.

His older brother said David Koch would be greatly missed but never forgotten. David Koch had recently stepped down from the brothers’ business and political activities.

Patrick McMullan, via Getty Images

They have long been involved in supporting the Republican Party and criticized by Democrats for their outsized influence in conservative politics. The brothers declined to spend anything on the last presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

At Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the ballet venue became the David H. Koch Theater in 2008 after he pledged $100 million. Another $100 million went to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital for an ambulatory center, and he gave $65 million to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he was a trustee, for the reconstruction of its plaza along Fifth Avenue. Both were named after him.

David Koch flashed a victory sign at the opening of the David Koch Plaza at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2014. He had given $65 million for its restoration. Damon Winter/The New York Times

Billionaire David Koch also committed millions to various hospitals for cancer research. Quoting the pioneer of political economy, Charles Koch said on Friday the significance of David’s generosity is best captured in the words of Adam Smith, who wrote, to indulge our benevolent affections, constitutes the perfection of human nature.