[In Memoriam] Jimmy Harold Goacher, 83

The following obituary was originally published by Hall-Wynne Funeral Home:

Jimmy Harold Goacher died May 6 due to complications of heart and vascular disease. He was 83.

He was born Nov. 17, 1940, in Booneville, Arkansas, to Edyth Etta and Harold Goacher. Goacher and his brother, Randy, spent their youth working the farmland of Arkansas County, raised together by their parents and their aunt and uncle, Junior and Dorothy Jones. He graduated from Stuttgart High School, where he played football for the Rice Birds, and attended Tulane University, Arkansas Tech, and Arkansas State.

His gift for analysis led him to banking. While working as a COBOL programmer for Cook Industries, he was recruited to join Systematics Inc. in 1976, where he rose through the ranks from programmer to manager. When he left Systematics in 1990, he had successfully implemented the Systematics brand of data processing in banks across the country, relocating his young family to Pine Bluff, Arkansas; Casper, Wyo.; Evanston, Ill.; Minneapolis; Birmingham, Ala.; and Albany, N.Y. Home was always Stuttgart, and Goacher returned there in 1991, where he and his wife, Claudia, owned and operated two IGA grocery stores.

The impending Y2K computing threats and need for COBOL programmers got him back into data processing, where he worked for EDS in San Francisco while Claudia ran the stores. When the stores closed and Y2K wrapped up, his independent spirit and love of the road led him to a third career as a professional trucker in 2003. When Claudia retired from Producers Rice Mill in 2011, they relocated to Durham. In June 2020, he suffered a life-altering heart attack during a stopover in Wyoming. Despite the limitations of heart and vascular disease, he continued to drive whenever he had the chance but stepped down from the road in 2022.

Goacher is survived by his wife of 59 years, Claudia Henderson Goacher; their children, Elizabeth (Lori Hilliard), Rebecca (Alex Yaggy), and Katherine; grandchildren, Braeden Hilliard, Owen Yaggy, Darwin Hilliard, and Corbett Yaggy; his brother, Randy Goacher (Alicia), and their children, Laura Spears (Michael Clint), Richard Goacher (Laurie), and Amy Goacher; great-nephew Garrett Spears; and great-niece Kelsey Mullen (Cody).

A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, June 8, 2024, at 11 a.m. at Epworth United Methodist Church, Durham. In lieu of flowers, the family requests a donation be made to the Freedom School Gifts funds at Give Now (onrealm.org). Please select Freedom Schools Gifts from the funds selection menu.