Funeral services for James (Jim) Taylor Koch, 78 year-old former Weatherford, Oklahoma resident, will be held Saturday, August 16, 2014, 2:00 P.M. in The Chapel of Lockstone Funeral Home with Ronnie Cope officiating. Burial will follow in Custer City Masonic Cemetery under the direction of Lockstone Funeral Home in Weatherford, Oklahoma. The family will receive friends Friday, August 15, 2014, 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. at the funeral home.

Jim was born November 4, 1935, in Weatherford, OK to Harold Dutch Koch and Emma Jane (Taylor) Koch and left this world on Friday, August 8, 2014, surrounded by his family and lifted into the loving care of our Lord on the prayers of friends and loved ones.

At 17, Jim enlisted in the Oklahoma National Guard. He continued to serve in the Guard after graduating from Weatherford High School in 1953, until enlisting in the United States Army in 1955 where he served with the 10th Infantry Division in Germany. After his Honorable Discharge in 1958, he returned to Weatherford where he met the love of his love, Betty Cope. He and Betty were married on June 7, 1959. Jim continued his education at Southwestern State College in Weatherford, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in 1962 with a double major in Math and Physics.

Upon graduation from college, Jim accepted a job as a civilian employee at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico. In 1969, he and the family moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico, where he was employed as a computer programmer by the University of California at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. Jim retired from the University of California in 1994, but returned a few years later as a consultant.

In his retirement, Jim and Betty spent several years RVing with the New Mexico Holiday Rambler Recreational Vehicle Club, making many dear friends and attending numerous HRRVC rallies nationwide. In 2009, Jim and Betty moved to a full LifeCare community, La Vida Llena, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was there that Jim bid us farewell.

The family has great appreciation and deep gratitude for the staff and wonderful team of caregivers at La Vida Llena for the loving care and comfort they provided.

Jim will be fondly remembered as a devoted husband, a dear brother, a loving father, grandfather and uncle, life-long member of the Methodist Church, avid fisherman, and proud patriot and United States Army veteran.

Jim is survived by his wife of 55 years Betty (Cope) Koch, three daughters; Lisa Stublefield and husband Kelly, Lori Koch, and Cege Koch; two grandsons Tyler Koch and Taylor Koch; brother Tom Koch and wife Wendy; and numerous cousins, nephews and nieces. He was preceded in death by his parents.