Jesse W. Couch ’44

With family at his side, Jesse died March 4, 2015, in Houston after a two-week battle with pneumonia.

After preparing at Episcopal High School, he was on the football team at Princeton. He roomed with Sandy James and was majoring in political science when he entered the Air Corps to become a pilot. Jesse served in the Air Transport Command in the China-Burma-India theater, was discharged in 1946 as a captain, and returned to graduate from Princeton in 1947.

In Houston, Jesse was noted for his volunteerism with some 12 nonprofit organizations, including the Episcopal Hospital, Chamber of Commerce, SPCA, Museum of Fine Arts, YMCA, and Cancer Society. A member of the Houston Country Club and the American Seniors Golf Association, he had two lifetime holes-in-one. Besides golf, Jesse enjoyed hunting, fishing, and flying his plane for business and pleasure. He remained very active notwithstanding a triple bypass in his 60s. Jesse’s career in insurance included a partnership that eventually merged with Marsh & McClennan of Texas.

He married Charlotte Collins in 1945, who predeceased him after 52 years of marriage. Jesse later married Charlotte Harman, who survives, along with his daughter, Laura; two grandsons; a granddaughter; a great-grandson; and a stepson.