John N. Couch was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia and enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1917 as an undergraduate transfer student. He subsequently came under the direction of Professor William Chambers Coker and obtained the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from UNC; he joined the faculty of the Department of Botany in 1922, serving as Chairman of the department from 1944 until 1960.

Professor Couch was internationally recognized for his outstanding research contributions to the field of mycology. His investigations covered a broad range of areas from structure, reproduction, evolution, and culture, and included the study of representatives of most of the major groups of fungi. His more important contributions to science were the monumental publications on sexuality in the water mold Dictyuchus, the biology and taxonomy of the genus Septobasidium, the discovery of a new family of organisms, the Actinoplanaceae, and in later years the potential of employing the fungus Coelomomyces in the biological control of mosquitoes. He was elected to numerous offices in professional organizations including president of the Mycological Society of America. In 1943 he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences.

John Couch was always interested in teaching and learning. His students admired and respected his enthusiasm for botany, his devotion to scholarship, and his stress upon careful and meticulous attention to detail. The Department of Biology presents the Couch Award to the senior undergraduate with interests in plant biology who has demonstrated the highest ideals of scholarship and research.