Koch, Ed

Koch, Ed(ward Irving)

(born Dec. 12, 1924, New York, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. politician. After serving in the army during World War II, he graduated from New York University Law School. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1968, and in 1978 he was elected to the first of three terms as mayor of New York City. Koch is credited with bringing fiscal stability to the insolvent city and with instituting merit selection of city judges. His brash forthrightness made him an entertaining and popular figure, but his demeanour and his rhetoric increasingly came to be seen as unkind and divisive and eventually resulted in his defeat. He later became a columnist and talk-show host.