Roy Dawson Fuller

Roy Dawson Fuller, age 87, of Midland, Texas, passed away peacefully on Monday, January 12, 2026, at Ashton Medical Lodge in Midland, Texas.

Roy was born on November 6, 1938, in Jayton, Texas, where he was raised and attended Jayton Public Schools. During his high school years, he played football as a defensive end, a role that reflected his steady strength and determination.

A mechanic by trade and by nature, Roy devoted his life to working with machines and helping people keep theirs running. He worked at the Buick House in Midland, Texas, from approximately 1965 to 1971, and later became a Chevrolet-certified technician, spending seven years at the Chevrolet dealership in Midland. He was also known throughout his life by the names R.D. and Art.

After moving to Midland in 1968, Roy built a mechanic shop behind his home on West County Road 130. For many years, that shop served as the place where he worked on side jobs, race cars, tractors, and anything else that needed fixing. Long before he formally opened a business, that garage became a fixture of daily life for family, friends, and customers alike. Roy was almost always found out back, working on something, diagnosing problems, and quietly making things right.

In his twenties and thirties, Roy enjoyed building and driving race cars. He competed in oval track racing at the Odessa Speedbowl between Midland and Odessa, where he frequently earned high-point trophies during Friday night races. He later turned his talents to building and maintaining NASCAR vehicles for other drivers. In his later years, Roy found great enjoyment working on old cars and John Deere tractors, earning a reputation among family and friends as a true “tractor doctor.” He also took pride in a collection of John Deere toy tractors, trailers, and implements.

Roy was widely known as an honest, reasonably priced, and highly skilled mechanic. Customers often returned year after year, pulling into his driveway and driving through to the shop behind his home. On November 26, 1984, he officially opened Art’s Automotive, a name he kept and ran with for the rest of his working life.

The name Art’s Automotive came from a lighthearted moment earlier in Roy’s career. While working at a car dealership in Fort Stockton, Texas, Roy wore uniforms monogrammed with his name. When a new batch of uniforms arrived incorrectly labeled with “ART” instead of “RD,” Roy laughed and decided to keep the nickname. The name stuck, and so did the reputation behind it.

He was preceded in death by one sister, Anne Partridge Garret and his wife Kay Carolyn Fuller, who passed on Mother’s Day 2025.

Roy is survived by one brother, Guy Fuller of Lubbock, Texas,  two daughters and one son: Renell Moore of Crowley, Texas; Debra Carlisle of Big Spring, Texas; and Jim Fuller of Melbourne, Australia. He is also survived by four grandchildren: Brittany Riley of Houston, Texas; Shawna Riley of Midland, Texas; Lindsey Smedley of Arlington, Texas; and Wesley Moore of Big Spring, Texas; as well as twelve great-grandchildren.

Roy was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Kay Carolyn Fuller, whom he married on April 11, 1959, in a last-minute wedding that brought both families together in the living room of Roy’s home in Jayton, Texas. Roy met Kay at the Ford Tractor Dealership in Rotan, Texas, where he worked as a mechanic and Kay worked as a bookkeeper. Kay often told the story of how Roy proposed while they were walking outside the dealership. Spotting a washer on the ground, Roy picked it up, pretended it was an engagement ring, and asked her to marry him. She said yes.

A graveside service will be held on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, at 3:00 p.m., at Serenity Memorial Gardens Cemetery, officiated by pastor Lloyd Wells of Spring Creek Fellowship in Big Spring, Texas and directed by Lewallen-Pipkin-Garcia Funeral Home of Midland, Texas.