Terry Davis

Terry Davis was born on January 2, 1948 to Cornell and Fern Davis (née Ockerman) in Idaho Falls. He grew up around Blackfoot, ID, and graduated from Snake River High School in 1966. He played first base on his baseball and softball teams, and – with his brother, Cliff – his softball team won a conference championship and went on to compete in Salt Lake City. From 1967-1969, he served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Toronto, Canada.
Terry studied at Utah State University. A lover of the natural world, he declared a major in forestry. After contemplating the school's job ads board, he switched to business. He raised hawks and falcons and hunted groundhogs and ducks. Terry took his younger sister, Stasie, on adventures fishing and shooting, occasionally encountered unexpected dangers on the road or in unexplored canyon descents. They also always came home unharmed, and usually their car was intact as well.
During college, he worked as a field irrigator and combine operator. After graduating, he worked for Sears, Coca Cola, Squirt, and for M&M Mars.
In 1976, he proposed to his fiancée, Jane Meyer, telling her, "If it's not me, it'll probably be someone just like me." They married in the Idaho Falls Temple on March 23, 1977. Terry and Jane hunted chukars and sage grouse across Idaho, Oregon, and Wyoming. In 1987, they settled in Payson, AZ, in search of better quail hunting. In a time before google maps, smart phones, or GPS, Terry scouted for birds with old forest service maps and an eye for the grassland. He once lamented that he had more named hunting spots than there were Saturdays between October and February. He may have been the greatest single adversary of coyotes in the state of Arizona, and he was awarded a plaque (by his wife) naming him as such. On occasion, he was followed by a young mountain lion, charged by a boar, and rattled at by countless snakes. His only injury came in a mishap carving a bow for his children with a dull knife.
Terry and Jane taught their children fly fishing, upland hunting, and playing to win. The one thing he loved more than shooting a bird over a pointing dog was seeing someone else in his family do it. He believed in "putting lead in the air," and he never criticized anyone for missing – so long as their gun was empty when the flush was over. With their family, they explored every freestone river drainage in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana that summers allowed time for. After trying to share his loves with his posterity, Terry had one child who could hit a baseball (Dillon), two who joined him on fall prairie trips (Dillon and Ryan), and one would participate in predator hunts (Breanne).
Terry served in his church throughout his life. He gave talks in church from the Mogollon Rim to Tonto Basin. He spoke about God and scripture, and about wandering the high desert – usually at the same time.
Terry always wanted to know what was over one more ridge. He is survived by his wife Jane, his brother Cliff and sister Stasie, and his children Breanne, Dillon, and Ryan (all of whom have shot either a pheasant, turkey, or coyote).