Koch, Charlotte (Moskowitz) 1908(?)-2002
KOCH, Charlotte (Moskowitz) 1908(?)-2002
(Charles Raymond, a joint pseudonym)
OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born c. 1908, in Syracuse, NY; died of complications from heart disease May 21, 2002, in Evanston, IL. Dancer, administrator, and author. Koch lived a colorful and active life from beginning to end. As a teenager she abandoned a conventional university education to tour as a modern dancer with the celebrated Martha Graham troupe. In the late 1920s Koch hitchhiked to Arkansas to attend a radical labor school called Commonwealth College; she then helped to operate the school. There she also met and married Raymond Koch, with whom she later wrote children's books under the joint pseudonym Charles Raymond. One of these novels, Jud, won a best juvenile novel award from the Friends of American Writers in 1968; other titles included Up from Appalachia, The Trouble with Gus, and Enoch. Koch also wrote nonfiction, including Educational Commune: The Story of Commonwealth College and a volume on nineteenth-century British hospital reformer Florence Nightingale. Koch remained active into her nineties, lastly as a volunteer at the Evanston Public Library in Illinois.
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
Chicago Tribune, June 22, 2002, obituary by Gregory Meyer, pp. 1-19.