Mr. Wayne Delano Floeck's Obituary
Wayne Delano Floeck was born in Houston, Texas on March 10, 1933. He passed away at the Texas State Veterans Home in Temple, Texas on June 10, 2016, at the age of 83 years and 3 months, after a long struggle to recover from bypass surgery in November. He was preceded in death by his parents, Leroy Cornelius Floeck and Fern Elizabeth Dickerman Floeck, and his brother, Charles Leroy Floeck. He is survived by his daughters, Rhonda Floeck Brewer, and husband Ralph, and Cynthia Floeck Sullivan, and husband David; four grandchildren, Chad R. Sullivan, and wife Jennifer, Eric T. Sullivan, and wife Danielle, Jake R. Brewer, and Amy Brewer Ringler, and husband Kendall; and six great-grandsons, Mark Moorman, Dexter Sullivan, Garrett Sullivan, Trevor Sullivan, Rhett Sullivan & Aaron Sullivan. He is also survived by step-daughters Rayleen Richie, and husband Allen, and Rhonda Henderson, and husband Mike.
The Floeck family has a long and rich history in Houston, dating back to the 1800’s, when Wayne’s ancestors immigrated from Germany. They owned property and businesses along Buffalo Bayou and he was proud to talk about his heritage. However, one of his big adventures as a young boy was taking the train to Tucumcari, New Mexico, alone – to visit his older cousin Jerry and his wife Dorothy. The visit became a permanent move, so he told a fib about his age and enrolled in high school at the age of 13. He graduated from Tucumcari High School in 1950 and enjoyed returning there many times for class reunions.
In 1953 he joined the Army and was stationed in Germany during the Korean War, another great time of adventure in his life. After an honorable discharge in 1955, Wayne enrolled at the University of Houston and was only a few hours shy of receiving a undergraduate degree, something he always regretted never finishing. He worked for Kinley Corporation, Schlumberger and later AMF Tubescope. He also held a real estate license and a private pilot’s license. He liked to drive fast cars and was proud to have owned a 1963 white fast-back Corvette with red interior, and a 1967 Stingray convertible, cars that Rhonda and Cindy both remember very well. His cars always sported his personalized “FLOECK” license plate – its’s one-of-a-kind. He loved to hunt and to talk about hunting, and enjoyed collecting guns. All three of his grandsons are Eagle Scouts, so in 2011 he presented each of them with a Golden Boy “Eagle Scout” Edition .22 caliber rifle made by the Henry Repeating Arms Company, to help them continue the tradition.
He was a very talented artist and considered that his lifelong profession. His family is fortunate to still have many of his original works, some of which are displayed here today. He had a number of paintings that were also sold as prints, and one of his “claims to fame” is that Burt Reynolds purchased his original painting Still Life with Jim Beam. In 1975 he had an opportunity to travel to Africa to go on a photography safari, and some of the animals he photographed there became subjects of his work. In 1982 he was featured monthly in Southwest Art Magazine. Later in his career he taught art lessons in the Houston and Pasadena area, and learned to restore paintings that were damaged by fire, water or torn.
Wayne loved going to the movies; that was one of the regular pass times he spent with his girls on weekend visits, and he continued to be a movie goer throughout his life. He enjoyed snow skiing and riding motorcycles in the hill country. He was a lover of animals, especially dogs, and anyone that knew him can not deny he was a sucker for taking in any dog in need; he and his pets were frequent flyers at Angel Animal Hospital. He even rescued an injured dog while on a family vacation in Florida, brought the dog back to Texas and nursed her back to health – who can forget the 3-legged dog named Florida.
A very special lady in Wayne’s life for the last 25 years has been Nancy Wood. They met at Second Baptist Church in Houston and became fast friends. They enjoyed church, the movies, spending time with friends and dancing. They shared holidays and birthdays together (their birthdays were only one day apart), as well as the births of each other’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She was a great care giver to him in 2006 and after she moved away to help care for a family member, she still kept in touch with him by phone on a daily basis, reminding him to take medications and giving him encouragement. For all of these things his family is eternally grateful, and regret that she was unable to travel to Houston to participate in this tribute.
Wayne loved Dr. Pepper, fried shrimp on Fridays, and chocolate, and would eat chocolate-covered chocolate if there were such a thing. But most of all he loved knowing when a new great-grandchild was on the way, and looked forward to watching them grow. He was able to hold each one of the babies with the exception of Aaron, but he did know when he was born and saw him in pictures. He often said he wanted to live forever, and he will – in our hearts and memories. We love you Dad.
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