June Koch, former college professor and assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has died at 92

June Koch, 92, of Ardmore, former professor of English literature at Bryn Mawr College and Widener University, onetime assistant secretary for policy development and research at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and founder of Construction Marketing & Trading Inc., died Saturday, March 1, of Lewy body dementia at her home.

Dr. Koch was an expert in housing, international construction and development, and English literature. She served on President Ronald Reagan’s transition team for the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1980 and ’81, and rose to deputy undersecretary for intergovernmental relations in 1981 and assistant secretary from 1984 to ’87.

She worked with the United Nations and other groups to establish national and international programs for millions of people around the world that provided housing subsidies, child care, transportation, job-placement assistance, and other services. “About a quarter of the world has inadequate housing,” Dr. Koch said in a 1985 TV interview on C-Span.

She created national information campaigns, encouraged international construction projects, and represented the United States in Russia as economic and development opportunities arose in the late 1980s. She was especially involved with a national program called Project Self-Sufficiency that directed aid to single female parents in underserved communities.

“This is a problem population,” Dr. Koch told The Inquirer in 1984. “How do your reach them? What do you do for them? How can you take the resources that you have and not just let them stay at the level they’re at, but help them move one rung up the ladder?”

She earned governmental awards for her efforts and promoted a holistic approach to problems that often included unemployment and family dysfunction as well as a lack of housing. “You need some real support services [in many cases]. … It’s not just a shelter you need,” she told C-Span. “When you’re in that kind of situation, you need a little more creative help.”

“We recognize that poor people are just like everybody else. They want opportunities. They can take an opportunity and run with it.”

Earlier, she coordinated city and federal agencies during preparations for the 1976 Philadelphia Bicentennial celebration and was vice president of Koch & Associates, a development consulting firm founded by her husband, Noel, from 1976 to 1980. “She was inherently a leader,” her husband said. “It came natural to her. She was empathetic, and people were drawn to her. They trusted her.”

Dr. Koch loved poetry and language. She earned a doctorate in English literature at Columbia University in 1965 and taught as an assistant professor at Widener for four years and then at Bryn Mawr from 1968 to ’73.

She started as an instructor at Temple University in 1958, was a Wordsworth scholar, and earned a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities at Bryn Mawr. “She loved teaching,” her husband said. “She had a skill for explicating language.”

She was active with the Republican Women’s Federal Forum, International Platform Association, and other groups. She founded a development consulting firm, Construction Marketing & Trading Inc., after leaving government and specialized in international projects.

"Some cities create homelessness by their development policies.”

“She was a force of nature,” said her daughter Jen Easterly. “She was the smartest, toughest, most formidable woman I’ve ever known.”

June Quint was born Jan. 18, 1933. An honor student and a lifelong learner, she grew up in Brooklyn and earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature at Brooklyn College in 1954 and a master’s degree at Temple in 1957.

She married Gilbert Yaros, and they had a son, Justin, and a daughter, Nicky. After a divorce, she met Noel Koch at Widener — she was his professor at first — and they married in 1967, and had sons Gabriel and Elias and a daughter, Jen. Her son Elias died earlier.

Dr. Koch enjoyed mystery books and poetry of the Romantic period, especially by Gerard Manley Hopkins. She played chess and card games, told memorable bedtime stories, and visited her mother’s hometown in Lithuania.

“Whatever she applied her mind to doing, she succeeded in doing it, from playing the piano to teaching herself Russian at the age of 51.”

She read War and Peace, in English and Russian, once a year every year, her husband said. They lived in Maryland for years and moved from Ocean City, N.J., to Ardmore about five years ago.

“Her touch and kindness are unforgettable gifts,” said her grandson Jet. Her husband said: “In a world of doubt and confusion, she was my compass, my central truth.”

In addition to her husband and children, Dr. Koch is survived by eight grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

A celebration of her life was held March 5.

Donations in her name may be made to Bryn Mawr College, 101 N. Merion Ave., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 19010.