Paul Selcer Thatcher

Paul Selcer Thatcher, age 97, passed away on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. The family will receive visitors on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., followed by a service at 2:00 p.m., both at A. S. Turner Funeral Home in Decatur. Burial will be held after the service at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs.

Paul was born on September 13, 1926 in Falling Water, Tennessee, grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, lived a few childhood years in Phoenix, Arizona, and then returned to Chattanooga. He graduated from Hixson High School in 1944. After graduation he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served for two years. Paul was part of the greatest generation and served during World War II. After basic training, he traveled to Northern Africa on a destroyer and soon after he arrived, Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945. Although many of his fellow sailors celebrated in other ways, Paul embarked on a search for his favorite food - ice cream. He returned to the United States and was discharged in Charleston, South Carolina. After his discharge he returned home to Chattanooga and began his career with Southern Railway. During his 36 years with Southern Railway, and its successor, Norfolk Southern Railway, Paul worked as executive assistant to the president, photographer for the company, and then an intermodal manager. He retired on December 31, 1986. Paul, and his beloved wife of almost 50 years, Dot, were members of Briarcliff Baptist Church since they moved to Atlanta in 1965. Paul was very devoted to their church, and served as a deacon and an usher for many years. Paul loved to grow roses in his back yard, and was an avid photographer, even winning the Chattanooga newspaper photograph contest two years in a row in the early 1960s.

Paul was a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather. Although he spent the last several months of his life bravely battling an illness, it was a battle he could not win. In the end, he continually expressed thanks for his amazing family and a life of 97 years in which he could not have asked for anything else. He wanted, and now has, the comfort of being with his wife, Dot. He will be missed by all who knew him. Paul was preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy Marie Taylor Thatcher, his parents, Charles Lewis Thatcher and Ruby Frank Selcer, his sister, Mildred Thatcher Edwards, and his brother, Charles Lewis Thatcher. Paul is survived by his son, David Paul Thatcher (Kauleen), grandsons Charles Bentley Thatcher, William Coulter Thatcher and Cooper John Thatcher, and granddaughter Anna Dorothy Thatcher.