(Seguin) — “John Koch was a natural born public servant.” Those are only some of the words that are being used today to desribe the huge loss within the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office following the death of Captain John Koch.
Koch lost his battle to cancer early Friday morning.
Attempting to handle that loss is Guadalupe County Sheriff Arnold Zwicke. Zwicke says his office remains in disbelief and is heartbroken over the news.
“John was diagnosed with Leukemia in the end of December, the beginning of January. He gave it his best. It came on. He knew he was dealing with something and then he was diagnosed and spent a lot of time in the hospital and we were hoping for the best and it took a turn that we didn’t expect and that we didn’t want and here we are,” said Zwicke.
Zwicke and Koch have worked side by side for much of their careers. Both have seen the agency grow to what it is today. He says this loss is hard to swallow and will definitely miss his friend.
“John was a close friend. He and I worked together over 32 years. John is the type of guy that he is the first one there. He is the last one to leave. He’s always giving of himself. I can’t tell you how many community projects that we’ve done through the years and John was always right there with us to make sure things got done and got done right,” said Zwicke.
Zwicke says over the years, Koch’s leadership skills and integrity have helped to navigate the sheriff’s office.
He says Koch was no doubt a pioneer.
“He was the type of person that wanted everything done and done right and if you look at — we are now at 122 deputy positions — if you look at that, he has trained many of them. Many of them started on his shift. John worked midnights for years. John was the last deputy to ever work the midnight shift by himself. He covered the whole county by himself for many years,” said Zwicke.
Funeral arrangements as of press time were pending. Koch was 60.