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Monday, April 26, 2010
One-On-One with James Koch
By Autumn Gray
Assistant Business Editor
The Basics: Born James Henry Koch on June 4, 1935, in Santa Fe; bachelor's degree in education from the University of New Mexico; married to Nene since Aug. 22, 1959; daughters Amy, 44, and Julie, 38; three grandchildren, Clara, 8, and twins Luke and Lilly, 4; three pudelpointer dogs, Darko, Caesar and Juan, and one horse, a Missouri Fox Trotter named Silver.
Position: President of Daniels Insurance
What You Didn't Know: "I've written a number of articles on wildlife, on game and fish stuff" for New Mexico Wildlife, a publication of the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, and "I've trained a lot of my own hunting dogs." (Koch was chair of New Mexico Game and Fish from 1982-1986 and 1990-1994.)
Jamie Koch admits he's one public servant some people love to dislike.
He's a scrappy competitor, both in sports and politics. A UNM regent and former legislator, he has strong ideas on the way things should be done. If he is criticized, so be it. The rough-and-tumble 74-year-old says he came into the world that way.
"As a little person, I was always in trouble. You know, very aggressive. I had four older brothers and played football all the time and baseball and went hunting. I was very hyperactive. I've always been hyperactive. I'm still hyperactive," he says from his Daniels Insurance office in Santa Fe.
In addition to his corporate job, Koch regularly competes among other 70-somethings worldwide in shot put and nationwide in power lifting.
He is past president of the University of New Mexico Board of Regents, stepping down in 2009 after a no-confidence vote from faculty. However, he remains a member of the school's governing board after the Senate reconfirmed him in February, amid controversy, for a second six-year term.
But Koch, a state legislator between 1968 and 1974, is accustomed to attacks, especially when trying to get something changed. He faced opposition when passing the state's first subdivision regulation in 1972 and angered hunters when he wrote legislation to protect the mountain lion.
"I think we were one of the very first states to do that. ... I feel real strong about mountain lions," he said, a bronze sculpture of one on the table in front of him.
He served as state chair of the Democratic Party in 2002 and has been a key adviser to Gov. Richardson and former governors.
Koch also was awarded the William S. Dixon First Amendment Freedom Award from the New Mexico Foundation for Open Government in 2004. He had been the prime sponsor of the state's Open Records and Open Meetings acts and in fact worked to ensure that meetings and activities of the regents were more open to the public.
"The reason I (sponsored the bill) was because our family got hurt because of a closed-door session," he said. Koch recalled how his father got stiffed about $200,000 from the city of Santa Fe in an urban renewal deal after being promised a hefty sum in exchange for some land he owned where the Hilton now stands.
Koch's father owned Santa Fe Electric Laundry, which had been built by Koch's grandfather for Fred Harvey and his hotels. Koch eventually ran the company, selling it in 1971.
Soon, he met Jack Daniels in the Legislature and in 1973 found himself in the Daniels family insurance business, where he has been ever since.
Daniels Insurance, a $42 million property/casualty agency, is headquartered in Hobbs, with one office in Santa Fe and another in Albuquerque.
Q: Your degree is in teaching. What did you want to teach?
A: I thought I was going to be a coach, but then I couldn't do that because my dad needed me (to help run the laundry).
Q: You were quite the athlete in school, I guess?
A: Well, I tried to be. Yeah, football, wrestling, and right now one of my hobbies is I do the shot, and I do power lifting. I just won the masters for power lifting in Oklahoma City in December. You do a bench press, and you do what's called a dead lift, squats and curls. I won all five divisions, plus the five combination of total weights. ... (He also won the World Masters shot competition in Canada and the European Championship for shot in his age group, both in 2005.)
Q: How do you practice the shot?
A: I have a shot put circle at home. I built a shot put circle into my driveway, and I have a vacant lot that I can throw into. On the weekends, I ride my horses and take my hunting dogs out. ... I do a lot of grouse hunting. I do a lot of pheasant hunting, quail hunting.
Q: You must have a very understanding wife. How did you meet her?
A: We were at the University of New Mexico, and she sat in front of me. I took her books from underneath her chair. (He says the couple have stayed strong in part because of their consistent Friday night dinner-and-a-movie dates.)
Q: Your family has a long history at UNM, right?
A: My mother graduated from UNM in 1918, my grandfather taught there in 1914, and my uncle was a tremendous football player named Malcolm Long, and he graduated from the university. My brother, Bob, graduated from the university.
Q: How do you respond to that vote of no confidence?
A: ... I have a copy of a philosophy that I've got, a philosophy of public service from (President) Truman, and he has a real good thing; he says: 'It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.' It doesn't happen that way in our education system, but that's my philosophy that I follow. What I've seen is that they've never asked me to sit down with them. But you'll also notice a quote in here that I use very strongly: 'Carry the battle to them. Don't let them bring it to you. Put them on the defensive and don't ever apologize for anything.' The problem is ... people aren't sitting down and listening to everybody's opinion.
Q: Is it hurtful to you to be met with such animosity from some at the school you have supported since college?
A: The situation is when you're in politics, you've got to have a thick skin. I mean, I sleep every night. You're gonna make people upset, and when you make changes, you're going to make people upset. I've introduced legislation that's made people upset — the subdivision act, people didn't like that. You know I'm dyslexic. I see in reverse vision. So I've overcome that very much. ... But what's gonna happen, when you're doing stuff, you're going to make people mad.
Q: Is there anything I didn't ask that you wanted to talk about?
A: I've got files and files of newspaper clippings since I've been involved. I've got lots of notes. One of these days, I'm going to be able to tell some stories. Right now, there's too many people alive to tell those stories. ... There's a lot of things out there that I know that aren't maybe said just correctly, and when you do say them correctly, it could be hurtful, but I would like to do that one of these days.
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