John Denton Hatch

Our beloved, precious John Denton Hatch passed away unexpectedly on May 15, 2022 while on a vacation in Arizona. He was a loving husband, father, son and friend. His parents are Denton Myron Hatch (retired attorney) and Janet Compton Hatch (mother and retired teacher). He is survived by his parents, his wife, Elizaveta Kazbekovna, and his two sons, Alexander (5) and Nicholas (2), and his siblings, Michelle Hatch Linton (Freeman Chris), Stephen Compton Hatch (Tanya Wahlquist) and Denise Hatch Kassimatis (Nolan).
John was an extraordinary man, who left a legacy of generosity, love, friendship, intelligence, industry, and perseverance. He was a passionate seeker of truth and happiness. In life and in death, he has been surrounded by a loving family and that adores him.
From the time John was a little boy, he showed exceptional intelligence and creativity. At times he was a handful because there was no satisfying his curiosity and endless questions. It was difficult to find environments that were challenging for him.
At age eighteen he entered the work force. The majority of his working adult life was spent at eBay where he thrived in an environment that truly appreciated his intelligence and talents.
John started at eBay by walking into a temp agency to make money while he started school. Little did he know this would evolve into a successful career. After spending some time in customer support in Utah, he moved to San Jose and worked in their network operations control center (NOC), the eBay division responsible for getting eBay up and running after it crashed. John quickly rose within the ranks to more senior roles. When eBay built a NOC in Denver, John was selected to help start the Denver NOC from scratch. As Technical Duty Officer, he was the voice of reason and authority during incidents. He had a renowned reputation for being an intelligent, quick minded, decisive leader, exactly what the NOC requires.
For one year, John left eBay to work as a TDO (Technical Duty Officer) for Microsoft. This opportunity moved him to Seattle. While he thrived in that environment, he returned to eBay as TDO team leader working remotely from Seattle. Once back at eBay, he continued to impress peers and his leaders. He then was promoted to manager of the TDO team. His quality leadership was acknowledged when he was promoted to Director of the Site Engineering Center, one step below Vice President.
John took his positions at eBay seriously with great purpose in his heart. John said, multiple times, that when eBay’s site went down, he pictured the many employees whose live’s could be affected, and this was his primary motivation to get the site fixed. He told his mother, “When there’s an incident, In my mind’s eye, I can see a sea of faces pleading with me to help them not have their income interrupted.” He also said that when the website went down, eBay lost millions of dollars each minute it was down. That was a lot of pressure, but he always stayed calm and collected as he labored to get it back and running. In 2019, John said that he had seventeen promotions at eBay. By now it’s probably twenty.

He was given a full ride scholarship from eBay, and he earned an MBA with emphasis in IT Management at Western Governor’s University.
Over the years John was formally recognized multiple times at eBay. Some of the major awards were the critical talent award (twice), and multiple SPOT awards. In March, 2022 he was recognized as an eBay Luminary.
This is eBay’s highest award granted by popular vote from eBay’s 12,000 employees who choose someone who “exemplifies eBay’s values and inspires others to do the same.” This award meant more to John than if his superiors had given him an award because he could try to impress his bosses, but the employees nominated him because they appreciated his help, direction and inspiration. This really touched his heart. The award came with a sizable bonus which he donated to his favorite charity.
While John was in Seattle, he met his wife, Elizaveta (Liza). They fell in love and were married on January 17, 2014. When they were dating, John said to his mother, “I found a beautiful girl that is more intelligent than me.” John lovingly referred to Liza often as “Love”. John and Liza were fortune enough to have two beautiful boys, Alex and Nicholas. John was a wonderful father and dedicated husband. John loved taking Liza on trips with and without the kids. He had a trip planned for the family to go to Hawaii, which was to be the week following his death. He was so excited to show his boys the beauty of Hawaii. Alex loved pirates and Johnny would hide gold coins in his back yard so that Alex could find “buried treasures.” He also took his boys on “treasure hunts” with his metal detector. John was often found doing FaceTime with his boys when he was away. He often FaceTimed with his children, helping them talk with their grandmother. He loved his wife and children immensely.
John was refreshingly authentic. He didn’t mind letting people see every side of him. He could go from being deeply analytical and astute, and in a heartbeat, he could be goofy and absurd.
He spoke often about how much he wanted to know the truth about the universe and how to find happiness. He was an absolute seeker of truth. He studied and was well versed in astronomy, geology, geography, history, archeology and biology in an effort to learn the truth about the universe. He also had great knowledge about world history and world politics, and he seemed to have a photographic memory for these things. He traveled all over the world to learn more about it, including visiting five continents.
In the last two days of his life, he told his father how much he loved him and how much he loved his family. John also told his father that he would love to know if there is a God. He said he had prayed many times but had not been answered. John sought truth his whole life and at times desperately wanted to know if there was a purpose to the universe.
His siblings and parents all agree, that for many years, they saw enormous growth in John. He wanted them to know that he loved them. It seems as every year went by, he expressed more and more love. He also seemed to have a great desire to be a positive force in society. His mother asked, “What is your motivation to be honest, and to love others and help them? He replied that he believed that society needs integrity, civility, honesty, industry, philanthropy, and mentors. He said he wanted to do his part to do all of these things to help make this world a better place.
John adored his wife, boys, siblings, parents, and friends. He was extremely generous with all of them. During the week after John died, his siblings and friends shared numerous stories about how generous John had been, and described how he went to great lengths to provide financial and emotional support. Accounts of his generosity poured in from all directions. He had many friends, including those that were wealthy and very influential, and those that had very little. Once a friend, always a friend was his mantra. He was still close with his high school and childhood friends. He was a master at keeping in touch with everyone.
We, as his family, have so much respect and love for our cherished John. He was a great man, and he accomplished so much. We will miss him terribly.

Employment History-
-McFrugals, 2000
-Musician’s Friend 2000-2002 (World Wide Catalogue)
-Gateway (A large company that manufactured computers) 2002-2004
-eBay Customer Service 2004
-eBay NOC Technical Duty officer in San Jose 2005-2008
-eBay NOC Technical Duty officer in Denver 2008-2011
-Microsoft, Senior Systems Engineer (Technical Duty Officer) Site Operations
July 2O11-April 2012
-eBay Technical Duty Officer Seattle 2012-2018
-eBay Director Site Operations 2019
-eBay Senior Site Operations Manager, March 2018- April 2019
-eBay Director of Site Engineering Center, (One step below Vice President)

Education-
-Preschool, Bountiful, UT 1985
-Boulton Elemenary School, Bountiful, UT 1986-1992
-Mueller Park Jr. High 1992-1996
-Woods Cross High School, Bountiful, UT 1996-2000
-Numerous technology certifications
-BS Degree, Information Technology- Weber State, Regis University, Salt Lake Community College
-Master of Business (MBA), emphasis on Technology Management, Western,
Governor’s University, Graduated March 16, 2018.

A viewing will be held at Russon Mortuary, 295 N. Main St., Bountiful, UT., from 6:00-8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. A short viewing will be held at the church, 990 Chapel Dr., Bountiful, UT., from 9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m. on Thursday, May 26, 2022 where the funeral will follow at 11:00 a.m. Burial will be at Provo City Cemetery, 610 S. State Street, Provo, Utah at 2:30 p.m. following the funeral.

Services will be streamed live on the Russon Brothers Mortuary Facebook page and on this obituary page. The live stream will begin about 10-15 minutes prior to the service and will be posted below.

JOHNS FUNERAL TRANSCRIPT

Bishop Jeffery Bellamy

Welcome friends, family, brothers and sisters to the funeral of John Denton Hatch. My name is Bishop Bellamy. I’m the Bishop of the Meadowbrook Ward. This is the ward that John’s mother worships with, and we’re glad to have you here today. Thank you to our friend, Dixie Taylor. She played the prelude music. We’ll be hearing from her a few more times today. We’ll begin our service today by an opening song played on the piano by Sister Taylor, “Coming Home,” following which Freeman Linton, a brother-in-law, will give the opening prayer.

Freeman Linton

Our Father in Heaven,

We are grateful that we can celebrate John’s life, and we are grateful that we could have him in our lives. We’re grateful that we have all been touched by him in some way. His kindness, his generosity, his love. Please bless that he’s in a happy place, a better place. Bless all those that are here, that know about him, that we can be blessed to remember him; remember those things that we’ve learned from him, that he’s taught us all, and to be more like him, so many great qualities that he possessed that will help us strive to live that we can be with him, and that we can see him again someday. We say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Bishop Bellamy

Thankyou Freeman. I’d like to recognize on the stand with me today, Dallin Henderson, who is Janet’s previous bishop up to a couple months ago; grateful to have his presence with me. We’ll follow the program as it’s outlined in the printer flyer. First, we’ll hear a eulogy by his father, Denton Hatch. Following that, the speaker will be Michelle Linton, his sister. She will be reading comments from his mother, it sounds like. Following that, his brother, Stephen Hatch and following that, Ryan Chidester, a friend, will have some comments. Following Ryan, Richard Keeler, a family friend, will play a piano solo, and then we’ll hear from Jason Laster, another friend, and then Geo Mark Brenstein, a friend and mentor, and Matt Gibby, a cousin. We’ll go to that point.

Denton Hatch, John’s Father

First, I want to say< “Thank you, on behalf of the family. Liza and the family have received so many kind gifts from you. It’s just been amazing. It really has. It has touched our hearts, and it’s come in many forms. Thank you doesn’t do it all, but thank you. John’s brother and two sisters, worked tirelessly after John passed away to prepare for this funeral. You won’t hear from Denise, but she was on the phone all day every day. You won’t hear from Michelle, except when she reads some comments from her mother, but she was working tirelessly every day. Her brother, Stephen, was the same. Maybe those are the best sermons you’ll ever hear.  Sometimes the best sermons are the ones that aren’t spoken. But we’re grateful to them, Liza’s grateful to them.

I could tell you a lot of stories about John, fun stories. He was a fun boy. Just a couple of quick stories. When he was about three, we were on a vacation at the homestead, sitting in a hot mineral pool. As we were sitting around, in walked this big, rough man. It looked like he’d had a bad day.

He didn’t say a word. It was all silence. At that time, in walked John. He sat down by this big, unhappy man. He looked up at him and said, “I’m a little goldfish, you can’t catch me.” Do you think that man could keep a sad face” No! He broke the ice for all of us.

John was also a spiritual boy. One day in church, it was testimony meeting, he said, “I’m going to go up and bear my testimony. He was about four years old. I hadn’t talked to him about it. I didn’t know what he was going to say, but he talked me into it, and so he went up there, and he said, “I think we should all go on a mission like the boy in It’s a Miracle,” which was a play that he had seen. I thought, “Wow! Four years old!” He had a testimony about missions. That’s surprising, so he had a spiritual side, he had a fun side. He had a great ability to change. I’d never seen anything l like it. In high school, he was about ready to fail. He couldn’t get out of bed. I was with him at the moment he made the decision. He made the decision, “I’m going to change. I’m going to make commitments. I’m going to keep commitments.” As most of us know, he went on to graduate, get a master’s in Business Administration, work for eBay, receive some of the highest awards and compensations that eBay gave. Amazing! I told him, “I’ve never seen a change like that.” It was amazing in such a short moment.

He also helped a lot of people. I thought I would tell you a story of love that I shared with him. But as I’ve been here with you, I’ve heard a lot of these stories. One was his cousin, and she posted on FaceBook that she just had a baby, and that she couldn’t get certain items because of Covid. The next morning, they were all on her doorstep. She called John and said, “Well, thank you.” John said, “You’re welcome. We’re family. We stick together.” This is a cousin that he didn’t really know that well, but he did those kinds of things.

I’ve heard so many stories since we’ve been together preparing for this funeral, that I’m beginning to think that this story isn’t anything unusual for him. You have to understand that John and I didn’t always see eye to eye. When he was about thirteen, his mother and I divorced. I think he felt like I abandoned him and his mother. I’m reading his mind now. Well he might have said some of those things. He thought that I was too strict, unkind at times, not the kind of father I should be, so our relationship for twenty-five years was strained. We got together. He was always supportive of family get-togethers, but there was an underlying stress.

While we were on our mission, about four months ago, I called him and said, “John, I’d like to plan a trip with you, just you and me, where we can bond and feel closer.” He didn’t say anything, so I thought, “Maybe after the mission we can do that.” A couple of months later, he called and said, “Dad, I’ve got a surprise for you that I think you’ll like.” I said, “What’s that John?”

“I’m going to fly to your city. I’m going to book two days in a nice hotel, and we’re going to have a great time, just you and me and Diana.” He liked Diana. I was completely surprised. Then he said, “Say hi to Jesus for me.” That’s John. I said, “Okay John, I’ll do that. I’ll say hi to Jesus for you.”

He said he wanted to pay all of the expenses. He wouldn’t hear of anything else. Then, he called back and he said, “I’ve made all of the final arrangements. He said, “I’ve arranged a place at a very nice hotel, just thirty minutes away from your apartment in your mission field. He said, “We’ll have a great time. We’ll eat out. We’ll go golfing. We’ll walk. We’ll talk.” I didn’t know what to say, really. That was a dream come true. I wanted to feel close to John. It was an expensive hotel. I said, “Thank you” we both expressed thankyous. I said, “John, I said “Hi,” to Jesus for you. He said, “It was good to hear from you.” I thought about it and he said, “Give Him a high-five for me. What could I say? I said, “Okay, John, I’ll do that.”

So, when he showed up at the apartment, I thought, “Well I’ll give him a high-five from Jesus, just like he asked, to greet him,” so he opened the door, and I got ready for the high five, and he went right by it, and he gave me the biggest hug I could ever hope for, and he gave Diana one, and that’s how it started. It was … I don’t know how to say it. It was different, and something I never expected. It was a dream weekend. I don’t recall a moment of stress. I don’t recall a moment of anger. I don’t recall a moment of unhappiness. We walked and talked. We just had a great time. Some of the things he said on the weekend. He expressed his love for Liza. We heard him talk on the phone, “Hi love. Bye love.” He expressed his love for his boys. He said, “I am planning to take the whole family and Liza to Hawaii. “I’m just excited to have Liza see Hawaii, and Liza’s father. He was excited to show them all Hawaii. He talked about how he took the boys treasure hunting. He would hide treasures actually, and he would take the metal detector out and find treasures. He actually gave me a treasure when he showed up that first day. It was a Trump silver dollar. He wasn’t a trump man, but I was the beneficiary of that and other things. We didn’t have presents for him. We didn’t expect that, but he was really putting on the red carpet.

He talked about Liza a lot. He talked about the boys. When we went golfing, he told us he hadn’t been golfing for fourteen years. He knew that Diana and I liked to golf, and so he booked this golf trip just for us, obviously. He wanted us to take a video, so he could show his boys what golfing was, so he gets on the screen, the video was rolling, and he said, “Boys, you are loved so much, and I’m going to show you how to play golf. See this ball? You hit it with a big stick.” He said, “Watch.”  He walked over to the Tee Box, and he put the golf ball on the tee, and he gave it a big swing, and he whiffed, right on the video. It didn’t even phase him. He wound up again, and smacked that ball down, and he said, “Boys, I’ll tell you more about golf when I get home.”

I’ll tell you about the last night. We ate together. We dined together. We were together steady for two days. We had no idea that he would pass away when we were finished. I count this as a blessing from Heavenly Father and from John. There was so much love that he had to share. He knew we liked Texas Road House. He took us to Texas Road House. He ordered a bunch of food. We talked and we talked. One hour went by. Two hours went by. The waiter kept coming and saying, “Are you okay?” He would say, “We’re doing fine, thanks.”

He wanted to talk about the gospel, and Diana said, “Well, if you’re uncomfortable talking about the gospel, we don’t have to talk about it… and he said, “No, I want to talk about it.” He said, “I recently had my friend make a plaque with my goals on it, and it’s on my wall, and it says, “Truth and Happiness.” It’s was out here on the table last night. We talked about prayer. He said, “Heavenly Father hasn’t answered my prayer.” I said, “I don’t know why He hasn’t answered your prayer, but I know He will. We talked about faith. We talked about real intent, and we talked things that we really hadn’t ever talked about before in that way. I mean, he was beaming, if you can believe that, and at the end, he gave us a big hug, just like we started. It was a great night. We didn’t know he would pass away in the hotel, but he did.

Diana and I are missionaries. He flew to be with us. He put aside his work. He put aside everything. He paid all of the expenses. It was expensive. Even the golf was expensive. We were a little overwhelmed. We were a little in awe. We didn’t expect that, but I heard the same thing from a lot of you, that John was kind to you. He gave you his love, so I saw a new side of him. I was inspired by what I saw. He put aside everything that I thought he felt about me. It was gone for those two days.

Diana and I in the mission field wear the name of Jesus Christ on our lapel. We talk about him all day. We pray to him every day, several times, and we love Him. I know when Jesus lived on the earth, people found fault with Him and killed him. We have not found that fault with Him. We have only found pure love. We saw that pure love in John. I don’t think John felt inspired. I don’t think he felt close to Heavenly Father, maybe he did, but he was. He had the love of God in his heart. He was inspired and he shared that with us. It was a gift, a great gift. My testimony is that when we die, Heavenly Father and Jesus have a plan of salvation. That plan of salvation includes life after death. John lives. After he died, Liza was trying to explain. She thought, “How am I going to explain to my five-year-old about death? How do I do that?” She thought, “Well maybe I’ll put a glove on a hand. I’ll take the glove off, and it dies, drops limp, but the hand lives.” on. She thought, maybe I can use that, so she prepared something, and he started to talk to Alex. He said, “Mom, I know. Father came to me last night, and he told me he had to leave, and he couldn’t come back for a long time.” He understood death before she even opened her mouth. John has been near the family members since which shows his love again and the love of our Heavenly Father.

My testimony is that Heavenly Father loves us. He loves you. He loves me, whether we feel worthy of it or not. Sometimes we don’t. He loves us. He’s there. If we don’t feel it, we should ask Him because he will answer and say “Yes, He does.” I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Janet Compton Hatch (John’s mother) Read by Michelle Linton

My name is Michelle. I am John’s older sister. Like my dad said, “There are no words for the gratitude. I feel so tender toward everybody that’s come today. I want to especially thank people that came long distances. John had so many parts of his life and so many places. I didn’t get to see him at eBay making decisions. We didn’t get to see that. We didn’t get to see him in Washington with his friends. The fact that people from all parts of his life came- you are so important to us that you came. Thank you so much for coming to a different state, a different church, a different family, and just being here with us and celebrating him. We love you so much, and we’re grateful for your presence. I’m going to read what my mother would like to have said.

Dear family, relatives, friends, and associates of John,

On behalf of John’s family, we welcome you, and we want to express our gratitude for your attendance. Kind expressions of your love have meant so much to us. Our hearts are broken that such a shining light is not with us anymore. John will be missed, terribly, but we all have been blessed by his presence in our lives.

I have felt that I was just an ordinary mother, and I often said to myself, “How in the world can it be that such an incredible, powerful, brilliant spirit could be my son?” [Michelle interjected: “And by the way, he was all of these things at age two, he really, truly was!”]

John was born with a talent for technology. While he was still in elementary school, his talents for technology became apparent. Each morning, when I turned on the computer, I couldn’t figure out how to use it because John had reconfigured it. He had an insatiable curiosity for how the computer worked. While he was still very young, he built a computer for me from scratch. I used it for many years.

I didn’t realize that John had some form of a photographic memory until he was in ninth grade. He had been home, with complications from pneumonia, for a month. The day he went back to school, his geography teacher told him that that there would be a map test on Asia the following day. John came home and told me about it, and I said, “Johnny, you better get cracking!” He said, “Don’t worry, I’ll look at the map, so he did for a few seconds.” I kept telling him to study, and in frustration, he said, “Here mom, take my book and look at the Asia map.” He proceeded to list from memory the hundreds of cities, which were capitals, and he explained to me where they were on the map.

When Johnny started to work, at age 18, there was a great transformation in him. The work place was where his true nature emerged. It was there that he taught himself to be a leader and to be responsible at work. With each new job, he would say to me, “Why am I in charge and running the ship? I am the lowest paid employee. I think I can do better,” so he would find a more challenging job. Finally, he ended up at eBay, where he rose quickly. He had 20 promotions there. In the end he was Director over Site Engineering at eBay, one step below Vice President.

While he was at eBay, he continued his education and earned an MBA with an emphasis on technology management.

One of the happiest days of his life was when he was made eBay’s Luminary. This is eBay’s highest award for “Someone who exemplifies eBay’s values and inspires others to do the same.” John received many other impressive awards from eBay, but this award meant much more to him because other awards were given by his bosses, but this one was voted upon by eBay’s employees, his team, and the people he served, over 12,000 of them.

Johnny’s accomplishments at eBay are amazingly impressive. Even more important is the love and generosity he gave to his family and friends.

When he saw a need, he rushed in to help. He paid for multiple honeymoons, multiple Invitro Fertilizations, many outings, concerts, trips, and expensive prescription medications for his mother and others. One day I said to him, on the phone, “My computer is so old, it’s driving me crazy.” The next thing I knew, he showed up unexpectedly at my door in Utah, with a brand-new computer tucked under his arm. He had come all the way from Seattle to Utah to give it to me. One day a cousin listed on Facebook the many things she could not get for her baby because of Covid. John had not seen this cousin since she was two, but all of the items she listed showed up the next day at her doorstep, compliments of John. Stories are coming to our family from all directions about how John was generous and helpful to them.

[Michelle interjected]: “Last night at the viewing, we kept hearings those kinds of stories over and over of how Johnny showed up in people’s lives and made things possible].”

He was a master at keeping track of his family and friends and at reaching out to them. His friends included very wealthy, influential people as well as people who had very little.

Within the family, he was very tender hearted. He adored his wife, Elizaveta, and his two precious boys with all of his heart. He told me, many times, how much he wanted to be a good husband and father. Elizaveta, we love you. We are broken hearted for you.

John and I agreed to disagree on religion. I told him many years ago, “I loved him just as much as I would have if he believed the same way as I did. He told me many times, “I know you do Mama. I know.” He studied all kinds of books to gain an understanding of our world, understanding of the universe. He prayed and asked God if He was there, but he said that he had not gotten an answer.

I believe there is a loving God who will receive John into his arms and help him go on in Eternal progression. I believe in a coming day soon, I will see my precious, beloved son again. He worshiped his grandfather, Lane A. Compton. I believe that he is with him now. John mentioned that he wanted to be buried beside his grandfather. Well, Johnny, today you are getting your wish.  In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Talk given by Stephen Compton Hatch (John’s Brother)

So, I think if Johnny were here, he’d want you all to know that you should “Rock it,” like Johnny, and I think he’d be dead serious about it.

I’m Steve Hatch, I’m his brother. You know, it’s kind of weird having a funeral for Johnny. Johnny was not an overly sad person, if you knew him, pretty chipper, pretty cheery, and so truly, he “rocked it” for forty-one years, and it was a concert, and we all got to enjoy it. Concerts come to a close, but one awesome concert, right? It was amazing.

I’ve been tasked with giving the only truly spiritual message today, which is a little difficult, because you know John, so I wanted to honor him as well as honor those that he honored, with their beliefs. We’re kind of short on time, so I’ll try to make it brief.

So. if anybody here knows John at all, you know how completely nonconforming he was, and in a refreshing way, right? He really didn’t care what you thought; he cared what he thought, right? And he really didn’t care when he told you that, or how he told you that. Because of that, he had a lot of strong beliefs about all kinds of things that he let people know all the time, and most of them were rock on amazing, just straight up awesome. Some of this will be about his beliefs, as well. Especially, toward the end of his life, was his belief of tolerance of others, and loving everyone, including his family and our beliefs about our church. He would want (especially my mom and my father and his siblings) to be able to have the comfort that our faith brings.

Back to Johnny and his nonconforming. Oh, let me put a little plug in here.’ I’m putting together a tribute for Johnny. It’s mostly for his boys, so when they get older, they can have a sense of knowing who John was, and so I’ve reach out to a lot of you. If any of you have stories about Johnny that you’d love to share with me, it doesn’t matter what category it is, I would love anything about John, stories, pictures, videos, whatever. You can send it my way. We have also, during the luncheon, got some places where you can write some things down. Come and find me. I’ll give you my cell number, my email address so you can send them.

Okay, so here is a little story about Johnny. This was when I asked for a tribute from someone. I got this story from a few different angles from a few different people. I actually wasn’t here when this happened. Okay, here it is.

It was the final music concert of the year at Mueller Park Jr. High. John was completing ninth grade. There John stood, back row center, among mostly self-conscious, and somewhat pathetic and apathetic fourteen-year- singers. The choir director responded with animated smiles, blinking eyes, waving his arms, shoulder giggles, body swings, trying to build confidence, and coax those young singers to look animated. And then there was John. John was not self-conscious or apathetic at all. In fact, quite the opposite. John picked up on every nuance of the director’s actions, mimicked them perfectly, and tripled the intensity—with his big eyes, huge smile, long chin. He got completely into the choir scene with exaggerated emotions and excitement, his eyes riveted on the director, swaying, smiling, winking, head-bobbing. John had all the moves. Not even for a minute did he stop. He kept it going for the entire performance, song after song, and even in- between songs, and he did it with total sincerity, no hint of mocking or teasing. It was a performance worthy of Bill Murray at his best. This person said, I laughed about it many times through the years. That’s the kind of guy John was, right? He just did his own thing. Whatever he though was awesome at the moment, he went for it.

With his nonconformity and his bright mind, it led him to some deep contemplative questions at a young age that sometimes didn’t mesh well with his family’s faith. At times, some of you know this, he was almost overwhelmed by not being able to understand the universe. It drove him nuts. It drove him crazy. I think it was because he could figure out anything, and the one big one, he had such a hard time with. He just could not embrace the uncertainty of life. He never once for a second said, “I’m okay not knowing.” No, he sought it his whole life, absolute seeker of truth. Sometimes it broke my heart because he was trying so hard to figure out the questions of the universe. It really tormented him sometimes.

There were sometimes where he did kind of approach being okay with uncertainty. He told me once that he had a friend that explained to him, “I don’t know what created the cosmos. I’m not exactly what that force is, but I’m okay with calling whatever that was, God. John was like, ”Okay, I think I could get onboard with that.”

I also tried to think, “What else was Johnny’s religion?” And you could also call it, “Johnny’s legacy,” but certainly beyond seeking truth, which he did like nobody’s business, you could say that Johnny’s religion was love. At the core of any religion, at least in my opinion any religion that’s worth much, that is the core, and Johnny nailed it. Sorry. [Stephen cried for a couple of seconds, and then gained his composure]. Johnny was a very loving person.

Johnny also cared a lot about society and about how the world functioned. He wanted to do his little piece to make society better. He was serious about that. But he was also, as I talked about, very supportive, especially toward the end of his life, about supporting other people and their beliefs, even if they were different than him. For those of us who are Christians, I know he would be okay with you believing that you will have the comfort that you will see him again, especially his mom, and his dad.

So let me share a couple of scriptures. One from Revelations, “God shall wipe away all your tears from your eyes. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain.”

And in Mosiah, “The grave hath no victory. The sting of death is swallowed up in Christ. Christ is the light of the world. Yea, a light that is endless, a light that can never be darkened. A light which is endless, and there can be no more death.”

We love you, Johnny. And for those of us who are Christians and believe that we will see you again, we are excited to see you again. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Talk by Ryan Chidester (John’s Lifelong Friend)

John Hatch was the perfect combination of the deeply profound and completely absurd. Please allow me to share an example. As I have reflected on John this past week, I’ve been scouring emails, text messages, pictures. I came across a particular picture I took while on a trip with him.

Ever since our favorite band got back to together, Fish. We’ve gone to see them somewhere around the country, pretty much once a year. Totally, we were able to see the nineteen times together. Our time spent on those adventures will just be among my most cherished memories for the rest of my life. This picture I took, though, was in the summer of 2019. We were in Bangor, Maine. We had some time to kill one day between shows, so we decided to do a walking tour of the city. That included going to see Stephen King’s house, a favorite author of ours, checked out some of the real-world locations from the book, “It,.” and ultimately, we found ourselves strolling through a park. John loved going through the deep waters philosophically. Regular topics included, “Is there a God? Why is there something rather than nothing? Is free will an illusion? Do we have souls? If not, what are people describing when they talk about that?

John loved to challenge people mentally. Me especially. I sometimes think it was a competition for him to see how far he could push things until one of our brains would break. He won every time! He had a considerable intellect. I always loved that about him. He always challenged me and get me to really think things through. So, there we were walking along the top of this hill, in this park, mulling over one of these deep topics. I had just finished replying something to him about whatever it was we were talking about, and I turned to around to see his response, but he had disappeared. I had a brief flash of panic, and I looked down, and there he was rolling down this hill like that scene out the Princess Bride. I could not stop laughing! Somehow, during all that, I was able to take out my camera and take a picture, right as big old John just came to a resting place at the bottom of that hill. So, when I say deeply profound and completely absurd, that’s what I’m talking about. He went deep, but was ready to pull the ripcord at a moment’s notice by doing something completely ridiculous.

As you all know, John was not a religious man. We were both raised in the same tradition. While it didn’t play a major role in our lives later on, we’d often talk about that shared experience, and the lessons we’d catch from it.

If you spent time around John, it was obvious that he loved doing things for people in his life. I’ve been reminiscing with many of you about John this past week. I’ve been touched with all the many stories about generosity that have been shared, many I had never heard. I just know in my own life, he was a constant presence of support and being always willing to help. He would regularly talk to me about that. He just wanted to help me in any way that he could if I ever needed it. So, if there’s one thing you need to take from my words today, it’s that John Hatch is the single most charitable and generous person that I’ve ever known. In fact, his generosity was overwhelming at times. When I told him that Janelle and I were going to be getting married, he was ecstatic and insisted that he send us on our honeymoon, so because of him we were able to have an experience of a lifetime for a week this past February. On a quick side note about John booking that trip for us, and I need to quote this text from him word for word because this is a very John thing: “FYI, I squared everything up with Weston. They were a bit confused when I walked them through it, but we’re all good, and I was charged what I expected. I’m not surprised they were confused. I pulled a pretty complicated weasel to get your stay at less than half the normal cost per night. It involved attaining some points at a discounted rate and using them in such a way that I only had to use a relatively small amount of already discounted points per night, in such a way that I qualified for a totally free night. They actually complimented me on an outstanding weaseling of the system. Ha, ha. I remember, it basically took me an entire day to research, figure out, arrange and execute. It was a day I had taken off work sick, and I just worked on that all day.”

So, leave it to John to spend his sick day pursuing the intellectual challenge of maximizing his hotel points and frequent flyer miles. When I expressed our gratitude to him from the balcony of our hotel he put us up in, he had even called room service and sent up a bottle of champaign to us. He took it that far, and we got up there and I just texted him and said, “Thank you so much, and this was his reply: “Absolutely man. You’ve been such a good friend to me for a long time. I am so, so proud the way you have been able to reshape your life into something that is balanced and happy, and in such a loving environment. Janelle and the kids are very lucky to have a guy like you in their lives, and of course you are lucky to have them.

Getting married, celebrating your new life, and having a honeymoon is truly one of those life-time experiences, so I had to insist that you get the proper honeymoon experience that you deserve. I feel a lot of personal happiness when I’m able to help people, especially those whom I love and care for. I was not about to have old stinky ginger-head have a mediocre honeymoon. It’s all because I love you dude. I love the man you have become, and I’m proud to count you as a friend, and I will always be here for you.

Lastly, as I have been going through old correspondences with John, there was a noticeable shift in tone from before he met Liza and became a father, and after. It always made me smile when he would send pictures and videos of him with his boys, as he chronicled his experiences in parenting. Whenever we were traveling, he would take time to FaceTime with his family. He took great pride in his ability to provide a great life for them. His love for Liza, Alexander, and Nicholas was evident. John, I love every minute we were able we were able to spend together as friends. I miss you, and I always will.

Jason Laster (John’s eBay Friend)

My name is Jason. I was a friend with Johnny for about fourteen years. I happened to work with him basically that entire time. The only time I didn’t work with John, during my entire time at eBay, was when he went to Microsoft for a little bit. But, in the first few years at eBay, John, Johnny to us, was typically already at work. As I arrived at the NOC [Network Operations Center] which is where we worked, I would sometimes say, “Hey Johnny, how are you today?” He tilted his head in a thoughtful way, He usually would look up from whatever he was doing and said, “About four out of five bananas today.” The type of object would change through the weeks. Sometimes a watermelon one week. Another would be broccoli, sometimes ducks. That was the goofy part of Johnny that I personally knew and appreciated, but it wasn’t bananas and ducks however. When things got serious in the NOC, he was able to shift immediately into the voice of knowledge and reason. Across eBay, people far and wide, knew who he was and what a special individual he was. So much so, that as Michelle mentioned earlier, he won the eBay Luminary award just this past year. What’s so special about that is it came from his peers and everyone that worked with him in the work family, I guess.

He has that rare ability to listen, take input from half-a-dozen different competing views, distill the information, and then share and move forwards. That was something he was fantastic at.

He was a fabulous mentor to me, personally. He encouraged me to push into roles that I didn’t think I was ready for, but along with encouraging, he was supportive. He made sure that the things he put people in, they succeeded in. It’s no wonder that Johnny had so much success at eBay. His entire career was about progress and doing the right thing. Johnny loved to tell the story of his career, and was rightfully proud of his accomplishments. He started his career as just an hourly customer support representative, solving problems for eBay customers. Every time his career advanced, his positive impact increased until he was the leader of the organization that solves problems affecting a large number of customers, which is why we were really thrilled to have him as a leader.

The only thing else I’ll share is Johnny gave us some great catch phrases at work that still are used. One we still use regularly is, “Well, you can do that. You can do anything on your last day.”

One winner, John, myself, a friend Suzanne, and Jake Bock actually went tubing outside of Denver. As we went up there, we went down the hill a couple times. As an adult, that’s fun—a few times, and you start to say think, this is okay. Somebody said, “Johnny, do you think you could do a forward flip, and then go down the hill?” Nobody thinking he would do it. He was a tall guy. He immediately grabbed it on his back, full flip, and was off into the distance. I’d like to think that this is his final flip, and that he’s off into the distance, and we’ll see him again. Johnny, it was a privilege to have known you. Thankyou for your friendship.

Geo Mark Brenstein, (John’s Friend and Mentor)

Liza and the kids, extended family, honored friends, Thank you for being here today to celebrate Johnny’s life. To Those of you who don’t know me, (I didn’t introduce myself a little earlier), my name is Mark Brenstein. I was a coworker of John at eBay. While I’m sorry to meet you here under these circumstances, it is, nevertheless, wonderful to see so many people that John mattered to gathered in one place. I’m certainly honored to share some thoughts with you here today. I think everyone grieves in their own way. Some people it’s internalized. Others want to share it with those around them, and for some others, it’s deeply rooted in their faith. It would be terribly presumptuous of me to offer advice on how to do that, so I won’t do that, but I think I’m confident we can all agree on though, is that we want to find and root in our memories the best experiences that we have of John. If I’ve learned nothing else over the past couple of weeks, with all of the people I’ve spoken to, it is clear he had a profound effect on the people he shared his life with. So, what I’ll do, is I’ll share a few of my favorite memories, and in doing so, maybe help all of you recall your own, and encourage you to share those with others as well. The part of him that lives on is inside of us, in our hearts and in our memories.

I met John on our night shift at the NOC (as was mentioned earlier). I do distinctly remember that first night, because it involved one of his great loves, music. As with most nights in the NOC, someone had some music playing. On this night, in particular, it was the song Lilly White, Lilith, off of an early Broadway album by Genesis. Here’s this kid, and let’s be honest, given my age, him, still in his early twenties, at that point, he was still just a kid, listening to something that came out at least a decade before he was born, and which I myself didn’t really discover until I was in my mid-twenties. I couldn’t have known it then, but that conversation started the foundation of an enduring friendship that would last well beyond our mutual employment. From his early job at, I think it was Musician’s Friend, to all of the concerts that some of what you’ve heard about today, and pointers to new stuff we found and passed back and forth over the years, it was clearly a core part of his life. It was no accident that one of his nicknames was Johnny Rockstar.

One of those memories I wanted to share was when he came into town to visit us. We had kind of a full house that weekend, so he was going to be sleeping in my son’s room, although with his feet hanging off the end of the bed, of course. My kids were going to be sleeping in our bedroom closet on a blow-up mattress. They thought it was great. They had blankets set up. It was going to be important, this whole thing, so they were excited. But I think he was a little guilty, perhaps, that he had kicked my son out of his bedroom. So, when they were sent up to bed, he went with them, guitar in hand, to sing them a lullaby, to send them off to sleep. Not content to play just any standard lullaby, he asked my son, Nicholas, what he wanted it to be about, and he said, “Stringman,” which was his name for Spiderman. So, John made up a song on the spot, and gave them quite a treat.

Over the years, John and I had many opportunities to speak and see each other beyond just work. There were times when we needed advice, sometimes about work. I think I might have been partially responsible for that whole trip to Microsoft, actually, sometimes about parenthood, sometimes about the deeper philosophy questions that we all struggle with as we go through life. Sometimes he took my advice, sometimes he didn’t. That’s fine. I felt honored I could be someone that he looked to in that way, though.

Today, though, I don’t want to point out my mentorship. I really want to point out the other side of that equation and how he was a mentor to me. He was wise beyond his years. He was certainly brilliant in his work. I think one core skill he had, and this has been conferred earlier, is that he was not content to just accept the surface of things. He really needed to deeply understand the topics that he was interested in. It certainly helped him in the technical aspects of his job. We have a core-technique. I’m going to get a little bit geeky for just a moment. We have a core-technique in technical trouble shooting calls—the five whys: It basically means when you’re digging into the root cause of something, you keep asking, “Why,” over and over, until you understand the real root cause of the problem. I can only imagine him as a precocious kid, after he just learned the word why, and how to use it, and how crazy it must have driven his parents. It is that same principle, though, that I think drove him in his desire to pursue and understand the other aspects of his life as well, and ultimately made him such an inspirational, seemingly effortless leader. Honestly, I think I could probably speak about John for an hour all by myself, but in respect for our time today, and other speakers, I will close with this final thought.

John was a model how to live a full life. He jumped into life with both feet, and always gave everything his full attention and energy. Personally, he made me strive to be a better person. Thank you for your time.

Matt Gibby (First Cousin)

I’m Matt Gibby, John’s cousin. Denton and my mom, Pam, are siblings, so that’s how are related. I was pretty lucky because, I didn’t realize this as a kid, but me and John are actually cut from the same cloth, quite a bit. When we were kids, I just loved being with him. I felt fantastic. It was a blast. As I’ve gotten older, I have realized a few things. We used to have sleep-overs all the time. We’d stay up super late. We would listen to Weird Owl Yankovic [An American singer, musician, and actor known for humorous songs that make light of pop culture]. He would tell these outrageous stories to entertain me, like the time he was kidnapped from the playground, taken to MacDonalds where he got an order of fries, and then they brought him back to the playground. I just loved that kind of stuff.

We got older, a lot of get-togethers, late night slurpy runs, and then we kind of turned our talents to the dark side, prank calling. I worked at a place called Sears teleservice. We would book the appointments for Sears appliances, so I kind of knew how it worked, and it was open twenty-four hours a day. So, I thought, “Hum, this was a good place to prank-call at one in the morning when we had a sleepover. John would create these characters. One time he decided he was Charles MacBucket. He was Irish. His barbeque grill had just exploded and burned off his eyebrows and his hair. I got to sit there and listen for ten minutes as this poor agent tried to figure out what was going on. I absolutely loved his sense of humor. It scratched me right where I itched.

John was the only kid I knew that had a CB radio and was interested in one, the old Citizen’s Band Radio– It was hand-held, three-foot antenna, D batteries. [this was before cell phones]. We would talk in caravan when we went on trips together. We would look for reasons to separate when we got there. He was just so fun to geek out with.

We used to go golfing with my dad and Denton. Denton and John would often invite us to go golfing. Golfing is a very methodical, kind of measured sport. John and I would try for about one hole to do that, and then it would just descend into goofy madness. We would be hitting shots with the wrong club. We would be imagining crazy things happening on the golf course like our dads careening into a tree and bursting into flames because of their incompetence. We could just go on for hours doing that type of thing. We even made up a character named Mel one time. He was in our threesome. We would keep a score and critique how he was doing. It was way too much fun. One other thing I have to tell you about John. He was a walking gas station snack section. He always had candy, corn nuts, chips. He always had stuff, and he always hooked me up with it. It just felt so great. Every time I was with him, I’d get some bounty from John.

As John’s passed, I’ve been trying to rationalize why he meant so much to me. I think I can kind of put it into words. When I was a kid, there were a lot of things that I hadn’t messed up about myself. I was super forgetful, I was disorganized. I was clumsy. I got really bad grades in school because I couldn’t organize my homework and do things. I could go take a test and get an A, but I just couldn’t do the whole thing. It just didn’t work right for me. Something about John, and the way he treated me, he just accepted me like how I was. He was one of the few people that I just dropped all the masks with. It was, like, “I’m here, and I’m ready to geek out and just have fun. This is what I want to do is be with John and do this. It was a unique gift. As I got older, and my work took me to Seattle a lot recently, and we were able to spend time and talk, and then it just became very clear the gift that he had—acceptance. It serves a very important part in my heart. He would always give me that giant bear hug when he saw me. Even as an adult, he would shake me sometimes. He actually hurt my back one time, but when he hugged me, it was like he was hugging the twelve-year old me too, at the same time. He just did something for me that no one else could do.

I’ll close by saying, about three weeks before John died, he texted me and said, he gone out and found a song that I had written and recorded YouTube that had, like, no views. It just lives in the caverns of the internet. He found it, and he said, “Is this you?” He said, “Oh my gosh, you’re angel Bro. This is amazing.” It just made me feel so good.  It just meant so much to me because nobody hears that stuff, but that song is very personal to me. Very quickly our text conversation just turned into life lessons and choices, and the deliberate decisions that he and I have made in our lives and where we ended. It was a perfect conversation for me and John. I just want you to know that I see him as one of the biggest hearted guys I know, probably the funniest guy I know, and he was very deliberate. He chose what he became, and he chose what he gave to people. I’m very lucky to have been a recipient of some of that gift. Johnny, I love you.

Bishop Jeffery Bellamy [Bishop of the Meadowbrook Ward in Bountiful, Utah, [The ward where John’s mother, Janet Hatch, resides].

Thankyou, those who have participated today. I never got to know John, but over the last seventy-five minutes, sitting here and listening about him, I think I’ve been cheated. I think I would have gotten along well with him, and been able to enjoy his, can I say, “ quirkiness? Is that allowed?”

Somebody correct me. His sign, does it say, “Truth and happiness.” or “trust and happiness?” [Audience responds, “truth.”]

As I’ve been sitting here pondering that, going back and forth between truth and trust, something struck me, and that is, everything in this life is temporary. Our own mortal lives are temporary. We don’t get out of this life without a finish somehow. Our cars, the ones that we really love, that are in the parking lot, and the ones we hate that are not in the parking lot, those are temporary. Our homes are temporary. Our jobs are temporary. We’ve heard a lot about eBay. You guys are great! But, it’s all temporary. As I’ve thought about this, I would like to make an invitation to you. Invest in the things of Eternity where true happiness lies. There is a God in heaven. He knows every one of us. He loves every one of us. John is in Paradise right now. We’ll see him again. That’s a promise. It’s an absolute promise from a loving God. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

In just a minute, we’ll sing a closing hymn. After the closing prayer, those who were asked to be pallbearers: Ryan Chittister, Jason Laster, Matt Gibby, Freeman Linton, Stephen Hatch, Tyler Linton, Denton Hatch, will you please come over to this side of the casket? And Landen Maugnn, please come out of this side of the casket where the funeral directors will help us take the casket out through this door over here. Please feel free as family to walk out behind it.  Interment will be in Provo. As you are aware, there will be no police escort. Drive safely. Follow the laws that are prescribed for our trek down to Utah County. Most of all, be courteous and safe.

We will have now a closing hymn, #97 in the hymnbook. There may be Spanish books in front of you. It’s okay to sing in Spanish, but there’s English ones there too, but we’ll sing that hymn. Apparently, this is Grandfather Myron’s favorite hymn. Tanya Hatch, a sister-in-law will be the chorister for this. The closing prayer will be by Nolan Kassimatis who is a brother-in-law.

One last thing: I always forget this part. Immediately after, for the family and those they have invited, there is a luncheon in the cultural hall, on the other side of that big old door there. Many of you might need to find a restroom. This is an old building, and it’s not entirely legal. Men’s restrooms down that hall, women’s restrooms down that hall. If you get really desperate, find the stairs and go that way and there’s more restrooms.

Prayer by Nolan Kassimatis (Brother-in-Law)

Our Father in Heaven,

We are grateful that we have had this blessing and opportunity to be affected by the life of such a good man. If we have regrets concerning John, please help us to reconcile them this day, and always remember Johnny as the fun-loving, truth seeking, caring, kind man that he is. Help us to follow John’s example in always being ready to care for each other; care for each other as family, as he cared about each one of us here. Please help us to keep John’s memory alive within each of us.

This prayer we offer unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.