John E. Koch Ph.D.

Dr. John Edward Koch (Ph.D. Engineering) was born and raised in Quincy Illinois. John was married sixty-two years to his wife, Dr. Mary M. Koch (PhD Education) also a born and raised in Quincy Illinois. The couple had three children in Hartford Connecticut before moving to California in 1972. John and family remained in Southern California for the remained of his life. John had two wonderful grandsons and recently became a great-grandfather. John worked as Lead Reliability Engineer for Cassini Project at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

John's family, with great sadness in our hearts, announce John's passing on February 17, 2026, in La Habra, California. John was 89 years old.

John was a highly educated, smart, reliable man with a wonderful sense of humor. John never lost his sense of humor even in the later stages of his life. John loved tinkering with cars, scuba diving off the California coast, skiing in local mountains and at Mount Ashland in Oregon, camping trips to the desert with dirt bikes and never missing and always filming sporting/special event for his grandsons. He was always tapping his toes to music and loved to dance. John and Mary joined a square-dancing club in the 1980's and had the cute country outfits to match. John and Mary traveled the World together and now they are traveling together again.

John graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a bachelor's in mechanical engineering, a master's degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering. John just liked to fix things. One of John's accomplishments was being responsible for writing the reliability manual standard for the Cassini Project. He was a true Rocket Scientist, and we know he's now up there getting a first-hand look at all the stars and planets. John was a wonderful, generous man. He was a loving, protective husband, father, grandfather and newly bestowed great-grandfather. We all miss him deeply and can't help but smile at the thought of him.