Owen Stephen Davis

OWEN STEPHEN DAVIS

died at home on October 31 after a long illness. Mr. Davis lived in Bergen and Sussex Counties in New Jersey and Weston, Florida. He moved to Old Greenwich seven months ago.

Born in Jersey City NJ, Mr. Davis was a WWII veteran who served in the U.S. Navy in Asia and the Pacific theater. He was stationed on the U.S.S. Dixie, a destroyer tender, as a gunner. Mr. Davis attended the Brooklyn School of Music where he studied tenor saxophone and music arrangement.

He was a student at the Pace Institute of Business in New York City and started his career at the Bank of America, and later at First Investors in New York City. At Bendix Corporation, he worked on guidance systems for the first Apollo missions and was a steward of the Bendix Retirement Funds. Mr. Davis was a founding member of the House of Jims, a social club in Wood-Ridge, New Jersey. He opened Mayflower Securities, a brokerage office in Hasbrouck Heights in 1968. He co-owned the Wonder Bar in East Rutherford during the 1970s and owned a microbrewery in the 1980s in Vernon, NJ. Well into his seventies, he was a sales executive and top sales producer for Resort Mountain Properties in Sussex County New Jersey, where he made is home for the last 24 years.

Mr. Davis was a member of Apple Ridge Country Club and later Upper Montclair Country Club in New Jersey, and Bonaventure Country Club in Weston, Florida, where he spent the last 25 winters. He was a Eucharistic minister at St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church in Vernon, New Jersey, and served on the Board and Finance Committee at that parish for many years.

Mr. Davis played in the Army/Navy game at the China Bowl in Shanghai in 1944 and played semiprofessional football with the Jersey Giants. He was an avid golfer, a fan of the New York Giants, New York Knicks and the New York Yankees.

Mr. Davis is survived by his loving wife of 57 years, Eileen Harrison. His child, Susan Davis, predeceased him in 1955. He leaves three surviving children, Cathy Grillo of West Milford NJ, Owen Davis of Greenwich CT, Patricia Davis of Medway MA, and six grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held on Saturday, November. 3, 2007, at 10 a.m. at St. Francis de Sales R.C. Church, Vernon, NJ. Interment followed at Glenwood Cemetery.

In honor of Mr. Davis, donations may be made to St. Francis de Sales R.C. Church, P.O. Box 785, McAfee, NJ 07428.