WASHINGTON, 2 June 2004 — The sole American killed in a terrorist attack in Alkhobar on Saturday was a former Kentucky resident who has been in the Kingdom since 1976, his brother said.
Charles Floyd of Stone Mountain, Georgia, confirmed that his brother, Frank Floyd, was one of the 22 people killed in the attack by Al-Qaeda terrorists on the Petroleum Center and then the Oasis housing complex.
While he had lived in the Middle East for decades, he spent part of his childhood in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and graduated in 1963 from the now-closed Elizabethtown Catholic High School.
The family eventually moved away from Hardin County, Charles Floyd said.
Frank Floyd left for Saudi Arabia in 1976. For the past 15 years, he had worked with Resources Sciences Arabia Ltd., a company that provides contract workers for oil companies, and most recently was deputy general manager of marketing, The News-Enterprise of Elizabethtown reported yesterday.
Elizabethtown resident Roger Rigney, a friend of the family, found out about Floyd’s death on Sunday night when he received a phone call from Floyd’s brother, Charles.
“He was upset, obviously,” Rigney said. “But he wanted to let me know that it was his brother.”
Charles Floyd wasn’t ready to speak at length about his brother’s death, but confirmed that Frank Floyd was the American killed in the terrorist attacks.
The Floyd family moved to Hardin County from Louisville when Floyd’s father, Ben Floyd, opened Elizabethtown’s first airport, located near where Pine Valley golf course sits today.
Rigney remembers meeting Frank Floyd once or twice when he was growing up. There was about an eight-year difference between Rigney’s close friend, Charles, and Frank.
“There are probably still several people in town who would remember Frank,” Rigney said.
