Peter Koch was born in Missoula, Montana on October 15, 1920. He was the youngest of three boys born to Elers and Gerda Koch. Educated in Missoula, he graduated from Montana State College of Agriculture and Engineering Bozeman in 1942 with a mechanical engineering degree. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps that same year and served as a pilot in China, eventually reaching the rank of captain. After four and a half years of service, he was honorably discharged and moved on to a job with the Stetson-Ross Machine Company. He married Doris Ann Hagen in Starbuck, Minnesota on October 8, 1950. After six years with Stetson-Ross, he left to attend graduate school at the University of Washington in 1952.
Koch’s Ph.D. dissertation, “An analysis of the lumber planning process,” indicated his early interest in wood technology. After obtaining his doctorate in 1954, Koch taught at Michigan State University for several years and then managed a lumber company in New Hampshire. Starting in 1963, he was the head of the U.S. Forest Service’s Southern Forest Experiment Station’s timber utilization laboratory based in Pineville, Louisiana. Also in 1963, he helped to create several versions of headrig chippers that are now commonly used in most of the world. He published his first book, Wood Machining Processes, in 1964. He received the Superior Service Medal of the United States Department of Agriculture in 1968 for his assistance in the headrig chipper development, his contributions to gluing practices for the manufacture of southern pine plywood, and his system for gluing single-species wooden beams. He was also responsible for the invention or conception of many important developments in commercial wood use throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
Koch was the president of the Forest Products Research Society from
1972 until 1973 and was elected a Fellow to the International Academy of Wood
Science in 1974 and the Society of American Foresters in 1982. He published two
Agricultural Handbooks, “Utilization of the Southern Pines” and “Utilization of
Hardwoods Growing on Southern Pine Sites,” in 1972 and 1985 respectively. He
left the South and spent a short amount of time at the Intermountain Research
Station in Missoula, Montana before leaving the USDA Forest Service in 1985. He
started his own corporation in Corvallis, Montana, Wood Science Laboratory,
Inc., that year. His last publication,
Peter Koch passed away on February 14, 1998 in Missoula, Montana from lung cancer.
This collection includes the personal and professional papers of wood scientist Peter Koch. It contains photographs, plans for machinery, blueprints, and correspondence relating to his work with the Stetson-Ross Machine Company. There are consulting materials, lecture notes, and membership records from his many appointments at different universities. It also includes his research materials, publications, sampling plans, presentation materials, maps, awards, slides, correspondence, and reports relating to his work with the U.S. Forest Service. A large portion of the material is from Koch’s company Wood Science Laboratory, Inc. and includes studies, statistics, correspondence, and research materials for the company’s various projects. There are also personal documents, correspondence, and travel diaries.
This collection retains its original order, boxes, files, and file names. It received no processing once it arrived at Archives and Special Collections. An inventory for the collection is available at the repository.
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of Archives and Special Collections, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, and The University of Montana-Missoula.
Researchers are responsible for using in accordance with 17 U.S.C. and any other applicable statutes. Non-exclusive copyright transferred to The University of Montana--Missoula.
[Name of document or photograph number], Peter Koch Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana-Missoula.
The collection was in the possession of the creator until his death in February 1998, it then transferred to his wife, Doris. Doris Koch transferred the materials to Archives and Special Collections in October 1998.
The donor indicated possible additions to the collection in the future.
This collection was received as a single accession with no rearrangement or removal of any materials. This collection is currently unprocessed; original titles, folders, and boxes have all been retained. An inventory for the collection is available at the repository.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.