Floyd D. Taylor, M.D.
Abilene

Dr. Floyd D. Taylor, 98. a longtime Abilene surgeon, passed away Monday, March 26, 2012. Born in Haskell, Texas, he was one of eight children of the late Dr. and Mrs. L. F. Taylor.

After his graduation from Haskell High School, he entered SMU, later attending The University of Texas, and then completing his internship at Baylor School of Medicine in Dallas, Texas.   Following graduation, he interned and completed his surgical residency at Lutheran Hospital of Baltimore, Maryland.

In 1942 he entered the U S Army as a surgeon, being sent to Mayo Clinic for a three month course in surgery. He then joined his surgery group at Lawson General Hospital where they sailed to Casablanca in an 80-ship convoy.

Taylor headed a surgical team consisting of one surgeon, two assistant surgeons, two surgical technicians and one surgical nurse. During this time, he was the first specialist surgeon to do Forward Surgery during World War II, operating in tents near the fiercest of fighting.

When the war ended, Taylor was one of a three-member surgical team sent to Cortina in Northern Italy to supervise treatment and evacuation of wounded German soldiers who had not been moved out because the Allies had destroyed the Brenner Pass.

After three months, the United States Government obviously recognizing the value of Taylor's surgical group's battlefront expertise, sent the unit to Lake Garda in Northern Italy where, at the request of the Surgeon General in Washington, D.C., members of the unit spent five months writing papers on "Forward Surgery of the Severely Wounded". One of Taylor's contributions to the papers published as Surgery in World War II was a chapter called "Wounds of the Abdomen."

Never wounded, Taylor was awarded the Bronze Star for setting up a hospital and taking care of the wounded on Anzio under fire.  He received his discharge from the Army at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland, in October of 1945, and returned to Baltimore to review civilian surgery for three months. In May of 1946 in Abilene, Texas, in the newly-completed building constructed for doctors' offices, now the Crescendo Building, he opened the first practice here limited to surgery, and in 1955 he was among a group of doctors who built and officed in Elmwood West Medical Center, adjacent to West Texas Rehabilitation Center.

Taylor was chief of staff and chief of surgery at old St. Ann Hospital, served as president of Taylor-Jones Medical Society for one year, and was twice chief of surgery at Hendrick Medical Center. He was a member of the American, Texas and Taylor-Jones-Haskell medical associations and a fellow in the American College of Surgeons.   Dr. Taylor was a longtime member of First Baptist Church in Abilene. Dr. Taylor was preceded in death by his wife, Mary Elizabeth Taylor, and son, Timothy Dean Taylor.

He is survived by daughters, Judy Andree and Billie Meeks and her husband Jack Meeks; grandchildren Paige Parker, Robin Meeks, Mark Meeks, twin granddaughters Misty Searsy and Mandy Lummus, Heath Taylor and Timothy Dean Taylor; and several great-grandchildren.  Funeral services will be 11:00 a.m. Thursday, March 29, at The Hamil Family Funeral Home Chapel, 6449 Buffalo Gap Rd., with Brother Jack Ridlehoover officiating. Interment will follow in Elmwood Memorial Park. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.

Pallbearers will be Larry Swonger, Jordan Corney, Joshua Corney, Jake Corney, Claude Giles and Dan Ivey. Memorials may be made to IntegraCare Hospice, 1665 Antilley Road, Suite 100, Abilene, TX 79606.