David T. Davis

David Theodore Davis, longtime resident of Plymouth Meeting, PA, and more recently of East Norriton, PA, passed away peacefully on January 8th, 2026.

David was born in 1934 to Leonard and Sallie Sander Davis in the Cobbs Creek section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the eldest of three brothers. After graduating from John Bartram High School, he studied engineering at Drexel Institute of Technology, and obtained his Master’s degree in electrical engineering at Michigan State University. He entered into military service as an Army ROTC cadet while at Drexel, and ultimately achieved the rank of Captain in the US Army Corps of Engineers.

His career in telecommunications began at Bell Labs in Murray Hill and later Holmdel, NJ, where he was awarded several U.S. patents for his work with transistors. He was an early computer pioneer in hardware engineering and software design, programming and coding. At the Holmdel Labs, David met his future wife, Lillian Pinkasavage and they married in 1967. They subsequently moved to Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, where they raised their two daughters and many cats, and hosted untold numbers of loving family and friend gatherings for over 50 years, before embarking on a new life adventure at Brightview Senior Living in East Norriton.

David had a deep intellectual curiosity and sense of wonder. He was a great observer of human and animal nature, and a voracious reader. He was kind and well-mannered, with strong fundamental values of family, friendship, education, respect and dignity. He showed up whenever he believed it important to make his voice heard. He was a music lover, particularly of jazz, a lifelong amateur guitarist, and had a beautiful and impressive singing voice, which brought joy to many in church and synagogue choirs, Broadway standard sing-alongs, and most recently with friends in his Brightview community. He was a longtime student of Italian and Hebrew, a periodic visual art hobbyist, and a talented builder and carpenter, plumber, electrician, car mechanic and gardener. He was a great swimmer, most elated when the waves were at their roughest in the Atlantic Ocean.

David most loved spending time with Lillian, whether at home with cats, or in Tuscany, Italy or NYC where their daughters and grandchildren live, or at their long-time beach house in Avalon, NJ.

David is survived by his beloved wife of 58 years, Lillian Pinkasavage Davis, his two daughters, Claudia Schmelzer and Melissa Pulitzer, his grandchildren Miles, Olivia, Theodore and Sabina, his brothers Peter and Mark, and his two cats, Maximus and Bear.

The family requests that any contributions in David’s memory be made to the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ to the ASPCA.org/donate/ps-gn-p2?ms=MP_PMK_Googlebrand&initialms=MP_PMK_Googlebrand&pcode=WPSN7GO2PK01&lpcode=WPSN7GO1PK01&test&gclsrc=aw.ds&ds_rl=1066461&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=11652982553&gbraid=0AAAAADp0NlV4gfvqqWHHiSlt7R10w0kat&gclid=Cj0KCQiAvtzLBhCPARIsALwhxdrLwfMyxGr2N3f0lUZONss_fYLAQeW9GSy0ecV6-NZTYpd5ccOj_3saAqKhEALw_wcB" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="fr-strong fr-green">ASPCA or to any other institute protecting nature and wildlife.