In this autobiographical sketch, Koch gives his interpretation of two unusual circumstances in National Bureau of Standards (NBS) history (a basic-research oriented Director in 1948 and the move of the entire NBS to Gaithersburg, Maryland in 1964) that made it possible for NBS to provide substantial financial support for the relatively esoteric research field of photonuclear physics using high-energy, but low-power betatrons and linacs. Also, he explains why the appearance of this research in the 1950s and 1960s did not produce adequate industrial support in the 1970s during the recession in science to avoid closing a part of the Radiation Physics Laboratory; and why now in the year 2002 with the invention of new electron accelerators with high power as well as high energy, industry may be seeking significant new NBS research with electrons and x-rays.