Jane A. CouchJane A. Couch, a prominent non-profit executive and fundraiser for four decades, and a tireless advocate for the nonprofit sector has died at age 73, in Fayette, Alabama, of adenocarcinoma, according to her daughter, Tracy C. Couch.

Ms. Couch, who served as Vice President for Development at National Public Radio from 1982-1991, is widely credited with seeing NPR through its 1983 financial crisis and reorienting its funding sources away from direct Federal funding to sustaining support from foundations, corporations, local stations and individual donors. Her innovations laid the groundwork for the enduring private sector support that has fueled NPR’s and public radio’s extraordinary growth writ large since.

Douglas Bennet, retired President of Wesleyan University, who became President and CEO of NPR shortly after Ms. Couch arrived there in 1982, said that "in addition to her good humor, she was fearless in putting together an unprecedented enterprise. She executed it without hesitation. When I arrived at NPR, I didn't know what her resume was, but I let her tell me what to do and I did it."

Vilma S. Martinez, former US Ambassador to Argentina, was president and general counsel of the then San Francisco-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), when Ms. Couch was Vice President and Director of Development, from 1975 to 1980. Ambassador Martinez recalls that Ms. Couch "worked tirelessly and effectively to insure that our struggling non-profit became a real force in the national discourse on Hispanic civil rights, as it is today."

Ms. Couch’s professional activities engaged many facets of American society, from her fund-raising assistance to countless organizations as diverse as The National Trust for Historic Preservation, People for the American Way, Vanderbilt University, Center for Public Integrity, National Press Foundation, The New York Public Library, Spelman College, and Washington, DC’s Atlas Theater and The Lab School, in addition to her leadership role on the board of Independent Sector and her volunteer counsel to the Navajo Nation.

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Born Jane Bartlett Ausbaugh in Montclair, New Jersey, to Lester F. Ashbaugh and Mary Aileen Ashbaugh, she graduated from Kent Place School and graduated with an A.B. in political science from Vassar College class of ‘64.  Soon after graduation she moved to Washington D.C., where she met her husband attorney Davis O'Connell Couch. They were married inside the Capitol Building in 1965, the second couple ever to do so. They shared over the years a love of sailing, a passion to make the world a better place, and getting away from the pace of Washington at the family farm in Fayette. Theirs was an enduring love affair. She is survived by Davis, her husband of 50 years, and their daughter Tracy Couch of Washington, DC.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making donations to The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, National Public Radio, Fauna & Flora International or any good cause that might need our collective support at this time in history. Jane A. Couch believed in humanity and spent her lifetime working to advance the best of the human spirit. A memorial service will be held in Washington D.C. in the Fall of 2015.

Contact:

Tracy C. Couch

Studio Suite — Studio Hero

C: 202.255.1762