For someone who never held elective office in Rockdale County, Roger Hatch got a lot done there.
“Roger was a catalyst for many improvements here, public and private,” said a former Rockdale County commissioner, Arthur Vaughn of Conyers. “He had the ability to build support for good causes, often behind the scene.”
Rockdale County Clerk Jennifer Rutledge said Hatch played an instrumental role as a citizen campaign strategist in winning passage of three recent special purpose local option sales tax referendums, one to build two fire stations, one to extend water service and one to repave roads. “His selfless contributions to the Rockdale community touched many people’s lives in so many positive ways,” she added.
He also was for many years chair of the Rockdale Soil and Water Conservation Board. In that capacity Hatch, a U.S. Forest Service veteran of 25 years, was a forceful advocate of clean water and wilderness preservation, said his son, Tim Hatch of Conyers.
Roger Curtis Hatch, 82, died of a heart attack Monday at Rockdale County Hospital. His funeral was Saturday at Philadelphia United Methodist Church in Conyers. Scot Ward Funeral Services was in charge of arrangements.
Tim Hatch said his father was physically active up until the day of his death, dancing with his wife the night before (“Dad loved to dance,” his son said). And only two days before, Tim Hatch added, his father had to run and jump into a swimming pool when bees managed to get under his protective clothing while he tended hives on his farm.
Roger Hatch grew up in rural Wisconsin on his parents’ dairy farm, and his father was a longtime president of the local Farm Bureau there, “so Roger’s association with the Farm Bureau here was very precious to him,” said a friend, Mimi Soileau of Conyers.
Jerry Davis, president of the Rockdale/DeKalb Farm Bureau, said he couldn’t ask for a better person to serve with than Hatch, who was its president from 1987 to 1993 and vice president through the ensuing 20 years.
Davis said Hatch took part in Farm Bureau policy discussions in Macon, regularly attended Farm Bureau conventions on Jekyll Island and went to Washington, D.C., frequently to discuss farm issues with Georgia’s congressional delegation.
“Roger helped found our county’s farmers market in Conyers 13 years ago,” Davis said, “and he’s been a regular participant ever since, selling all sorts of produce from his farm two days a week through the summer months.” Hatch donated produce he didn’t sell to a county relief services program, or to the Monastery of the Holy Spirit outside Conyers.
Hatch started an annual Volunteer Day tradition in Rockdale as a local Kiwanis Club-sponsored program to assist seniors in keeping up their homes.
Roy Owens of Conyers, a former Kiwanis vice president, said: “We’d get a good turnout of helpers and do as many as 40 projects as year, some big and some small. We’d fix bathrooms, kitchens and porches. We’d paint interiors and power-wash exteriors. And Roger spearheaded the whole thing, doing the organizing and then doing hands-on work until the projects were finished.”
Hatch was a faithful 40-year member of Philadelphia United Methodist Church and for many years hosted the church’s Easter sunrise services at his farm.
Hatch’s first wife, Ruth Pinke Hatch, died in 1978. Survivors include his wife of 20 years, Ming Chu Hatch; three daughters, Mary Dresser of Strasburg, Pa., Linda McNeil of Conyers and Patricia O’Donnell of Fayetteville, N.C.; three sons, Timothy Hatch of Conyers, Richard Hatch of Marietta and Peter Hatch of Athens; a stepson, Jammie Chu of Royal Oak, Mich.; a sister, Mary Hutchinson of Mount Horeb, Wis.; 14 grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.
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