Koch at the commissioning of USS Lake Champlain in New York City, 12 August 1988

Edward Irving "Ed" Koch (born December 12, 1924; pronounced /ˈkɒtʃ/) was a United States Congressman from 1969 to 1977 and the Mayor of New York City from 1978 to 1989.

Koch was born in 1924 to a Jewish family in the Morrisania section of the Bronx. His father worked as a furrier. During the Great Depression, sales of fur coats and other luxury goods sharply declined, and the family moved from New York City to Newark, New Jersey. He graduated from Newark's South Side High School in 1941. (The school is now called Malcolm X Shabazz High School). His mother, Joyce, died of cancer at a relatively young age. Koch attended City College of New York from 1941 to 1943.