“Hats Off” Party for Dee Koch, Cultural Ambassador and Houston Community Leader

The George Foundation, established in 1945, is a nonprofit organization that helps residents of the Fort Bend County of Texas by partnering with communities and providing grants and resources. Ms. Dee Koch joined the George Foundation in 1988 and supervised its community engagement programs, including scholarship grants for youth. The Chairman of the Board of the George Foundation once said, “Dee wears many, many hats for our community.” After 30 years of dedicated work for Fort Bend communities and young people in the United States and other countries alike, Ms. Koch is taking her many “hats” off this spring.
Ms. Koch has been a long-term educational partner with the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural office (TECO) in Houston. Over the years, she has worked to engage the TECO office in various activities in the city and connect the Taiwanese community with other communities in the greater Houston area. She self-funded trips to Taiwan to provide leadership program training to college students during summer time and generously received groups of Taiwanese students and introduced them to the culture of Texas.
A retirement party attended by about 250 guests was held for Ms. Koch on April 24, 2018 to honor her 30 years of hard work and her endeavors. Peter Chen, the Director General of TECO in Houston, presented her with a certificate of appreciation for her long friendship with TECO and to honor her great achievements, and a decorative porcelain plate, designed by Taiwanese artist Chang Ke-Chi, as a token of remembrance from Taiwan. The illustration on the plate symbolizes the search for fortune, success, and longevity and “the good among the great”.
Before joining the George Foundation in Houston, Ms. Koch lived in several cities in Texas and Saudi Arabia for six years. Although she has retired from the Foundation, her passion for enhancing youth education in Taiwan is continuing and she will host leadership programs at two universities in Taiwan this summer. Her retirement is the beginning of another stage in her career helping young people around the world.

Photo:Director General Peter Chen of TECO in Houston presents the Certificate of Appreciation and a token of remembrance to Ms. Dee Koch.