Leo Koch

Who was Leo Koch?

Leo Francis Koch was a professor of biology at the University of Illinois, whose 1960 letter to the Daily Illini defending premarital sex provoked public outrage and prompted his firing from the university by President David Dodds Henry. Henry called the letter "offensive and repugnant." The UI Board of Trustees supported Henry, while the University of Illinois Senate voted to reprimand Koch but not to censure him. The firing and Koch's subsequent battle to be reinstated became a sensation in the press. Illinois was censured by the American Association of University Professors for the ouster. Koch appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of the United States, who both refused to grant him a hearing.

Following his dismissal from Illinois, Koch met free love advocate and convicted child molester Jefferson Poland, and together they founded the Sexual Freedom League in New York City.