13. Frederick Henry Koch, 1877 - 1944

Photograph of Koch and his gravestone

Frederick Henry Koch was born to a large family in Kentucky, grew up in Illinois, and received his bachelor’s degree from Ohio Wesleyan.

Harboring the fervent desire to become an actor, Koch took some classes from the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston, but as his family did not approve of this ambition, he eventually enrolled at Harvard for his MA in English literature, and satisfied his dramatic leanings by traveling the countryside giving readings of Shakespeare.

From 1905 to 1918 Koch taught English at the University of North Dakota, where he also founded the Dakota Playmakers. The Playmakers produced student-written, one-act plays illustrating local history and trouped them around to schools and communities across the state. During this time, he also married and began building his own family.

In time, UNC President Edward Kidder Graham learned of the Dakota Playmakers, and decided to develop a similar program at his school. In 1918 he wrote to Koch and persuaded him to come to Chapel Hill, where Koch would teach and write plays for the next twenty six years. Among Koch’s students were Thomas Wolfe, Paul Green, Betty Smith, Jonathan Daniels, Noel Houston, Joseph Mitchell, Frances Gray Patton, Bernice Kelly Harris, Le Gette Blythe, Howard Richardson, and Josefina Niggli.

To allow his authors to see their work performed, Koch organized a producing group, the Carolina Playmakers, modeled on the Playmakers of North Dakota. Like their predecessors, the Carolina Playmakers traveled the state and even presented their plays in New York, Boston, Dallas and St. Louis. Many of the actors, directors, dancers, and designers who participated in the Playmakers went on to find success in professional theatre, motion pictures, and television.