Harry Edmund Davis Jr.

Harry Edmund Davis, Jr., 88, of Salem, Va., fought a courageous three-year battle with multiple myeloma and won his final healing on Christmas Eve, 2008, passing at home in the loving care of his family. Mr. Davis was born on July 11, 1920 in Hastings, Pa., the son of the late Harry E. Davis Sr. and Margaret Bonner Davis. Mr. Davis was a Navy veteran; he enlisted within the week after Pearl Harbor and served in the Pacific Theatre, notably in the Galapagos Islands, and was honorably discharged in 1945 with a rating of Aerographer's Mate, First Class. Following his discharge he attended college at St. Bonaventure University in New York, and later earned a Masters Degree in Hospital Administration from the Medical School at Washington University in St. Louis. He served as Administrator of the Northwest Texas Hospital District in Amarillo, Texas. Mr. Davis subsequently moved to academia and served as Dean of Allied Health Sciences at the St. Louis Junior College District, and on the faculties of Washington University in St. Louis and Southern Illinois University where he taught health administration. He was recognized for his contributions as a member of the American Hospital Association and as a Fellow in the Royal Society of Health, London. Mr. Davis was a patriot, a music lover with eclectic taste, a master woodworker, an antiquarian, a scholar with a restless, inquiring intellect, and an enthusiastic supporter of Penn State football. He had an abiding interest in his ancestral home in Wales and often flew the scarlet, green and white Welsh flag from the pole in his yard. Mr. Davis is survived by his loving wife of sixty-three years, Mary Elizabeth (Grove) Davis; children, Dianne (Patrick) Byrne of Roanoke, Virginia, Mike (Ellie) Davis of Fort Worth, Texas, Mark (Michelle) Davis and Matt Davis of Amarillo, Texas; grandchildren, Amy, Kerry, Jessie, Kevin, Ben, and Katie; and great-grandchildren, Norah and Griffin. Arrangements are being handled by John M. Oakey & Son in Salem. A memorial service will be conducted at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Salem, at 11 a.m. on Monday, December 29, 2008. Family will be receiving friends at 10 a.m. in the parish hall prior to the service. Online condolences to the family may be made at www.johnmoakey.com.