Floyd Hatcher

Floyd M. Hatcher Jr., beloved Father of Christopher Lynn Hatcher, passed away on Friday, November 22, 2024, at Hendrick Hospice Care in Abilene following a short battle with stroke and pancreatic cancer. He was 73 years old and will be deeply missed.

Funeral service will be at Elmwood Funeral Home Chapel, 5750 Hwy 277 South on Saturday, December 7th at 2 p.m. with Pastor David Black officiating. Visitation will be held on Friday, December 6th from 6:00-8:00 p.m. There will be no graveside service.

Floyd was born the second of four children to Nancy Lyndelle and Floyd Mentlow Hatcher Sr. in Pampa, Texas on August 5, 1951. He graduated from Pampa High School in 1969 and moved to Abilene in 1970. He enrolled at McMurry University in 1972 and studied art under Professor J. Robert Miller, an accomplished portrait and landscape painter. Floyd graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in fine art and English literature. He considered Professor Miller to be the single greatest influence on developing his talent as a painter.

Floyd was an avid artist who specialized in oil portraits, figure paintings, still lifes, pencil portraits, and other types of fine art. His art was a source of great personal pride and joy, and he took immense pleasure in satisfying the people who paid for his work. Floyd also loved surprising family members with portraits and still lifes as gifts around special occasions and holidays. He stayed active as an artist from his early days of study all the way up to the final years of his life.

Floyd and his only son, Chris, had many fun-filled occasions around bowling, video games, and baseball during the 1980s. While Floyd was competitive bowling at the old Triangle Bowling Lanes (now where New Hope Church is located), Chris would spend many nights watching his dad bowl and perfecting his video gaming skills in the bowling alley arcade. The Atari 2600, original Nintendo NES, and Sega Genesis were gaming staples for the twosome throughout the decade. And there was rarely a weekend from the months of March through August when Floyd wasn’t pitching fastballs to Chris to help make him a better hitter.

But through all the fun, Floyd often said his proudest moment as a father was watching Chris accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior in February 1986 at the age of 11. Floyd knew the importance of having a relationship with Jesus which he personally experienced early on in his childhood. And it was that personal relationship with Jesus, combined with his love of art, that led him to serve two different ministerial organizations in the 1990s to early 2000s.

In 1992, Floyd moved to Lindale, Texas to become an illustrator on staff at Last Days Ministries (LDM), founded by Keith and Melody Green. It was here where Floyd studied and learned computer design and graphic arts. In 1997, he moved to Bartlesville, Oklahoma where he continued to work as an illustrator on both print and digital productions for The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), a ministry focused on creating awareness and supporting persecuted Christians around the world. With digital schooling in hand, it was in 1998 when Floyd also began offering freelance work as an illustrator and graphic designer.

Upon moving back to Abilene in 2002, Floyd would soon enjoy the bond he had with his two grandchildren, Catelyn and Tyler (born in 2004 and 2007, respectively). He carried out his daughter-in-law, Cindy’s wishes of painting a garden mural in Catelyn’s first nursery, and literally finished the final brush strokes just as she was going into labor! He was always amused when Catelyn would call him “Gi-Daddy” (short for Granddaddy) as a toddler. And he was so incredibly proud of the beautiful, bold, and brilliant young lady she blossomed into in her teenage years.

With Tyler, Floyd’s legacy of artistic creativity continued in the Hatcher line, and he could not have been prouder. Floyd would often arrive for visits, give hugs to all the family, and then immediately ask Tyler to grab his sketch book so he could see his pencil art. He loved giving Tyler pointers on shading and was truly in awe of the progress Tyler made with each new drawing.

Floyd was also a lifelong musician and played bass guitar for multiple rock bands in the 1960s and 70s. In 2010, he joined the First United Methodist Church worship team as a bassist and played alongside Chris and Cindy, who were members of the team. This familial connection lasted several years and worshipping the Lord with his family became something Floyd looked forward to each week.

One of Floyd’s proudest personal accomplishments came on May 30, 2013, when he earned his Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the prestigious Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia some 40 years after his undergraduate studies! He was an adjunct instructor of fine art at McMurry from August 2003 to December 2008 where he taught studio classes in Fundamentals of Drawing. And, while spending his summers in Georgia earning his masters from 2009 to 2012, Floyd also worked as an instructor of fine art at Cisco College from August 2008 to August 2016. While at Cisco, he developed curriculum and taught on a variety of subjects ranging from digital photography, drawing, graphic design, painting, and web design. He retired from teaching in 2016 but maintained his love for art and web/graphic design by doing freelance work until the end of his life.

Over the last two decades of his life, Floyd re-kindled his love of video games from earlier days and turned console/computer gaming into one of his favorite pastimes. He and Chris would have lengthy discussions over various games they were each playing, even after Chris and his family moved away from Abilene in September 2014. In his retirement years, Floyd would spend many late nights shooting zombies, infiltrating enemy camps, and scavenging wastelands. In short, he was proud to be a Grandpa Gamer.

Another later-in-life pastime Floyd dove headfirst into was the game of poker. He began as an online player but took part in a men’s casual poker group along with Chris in 2011. He continued with that group for a number of years before becoming part of a local poker club with more relentless players and higher stakes! It was here where Floyd found a love for the “cash game,” but also loved the many friendships he made along the way. It was several of those friends, along with his brothers, sister, son, high school best friend, and general physician and friend, who were with Floyd through the final weeks of his life.

Floyd was preceded in death by his parents, Floyd and Lyndelle Hatcher; and his older brother, Wilson “Wil” H. Hatcher.

He is survived by his son, Chris Hatcher, and his wife, Cindy, of New Braunfels, Texas; two grandchildren, Catelyn and Tyler Hatcher; his sister, Roxanne Giles, and her husband, Bill, of Pampa; his brother, Harlon Hatcher, of Pampa; his sister-in-law, Carmen Hatcher, of Fallbrook, California; his aunt, Gay Cross, of Abilene; his 16-year-old Jack Russell terrier, Maxx, who was one of his closest buddies; and many loving cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends.