William A. Davis

William A. Davis, longtime Boston Globe writer, passed away peacefully at home on February 19th, aged 93, surrounded by his loving family.

Bill was a natural storyteller who observed his world with endless curiosity and humor. A proud Bostonian, he grew up in St. Brendan's Parish, Dorchester, his boyhood shadowed by the war that claimed the life of his older brother John. His first job was delivering The Boston Globe, and he dreamed of becoming a newspaperman. He co- edited his Mission Highschool paper, went on to BU's School of Journalism and served in Army Intelligence in post-war Germany. Stationed in the Neckar Valley, he discovered the beauty and complexity of a larger world, and his desire to explore it.

As a newspaperman, Bill worked his way up from the Biddeford Saco Journal in Maine, through a series of Massachusetts papers, including The Worcester Telegram and The Boston Herald, before landing a "lobster shift" (night) job as a rewrite man at The Boston Globe. In 1968, while still working nights, he shared a typewriter in the city room with travel writer Christina Tree. He went on to share 53 years of marriage and three sons with Chris.

In his more than 35 years at The Globe, Bill was primarily a Living Arts section writer and served as the travel editor in the last pre-internet decades - a period when the travel section ballooned, mirroring how quickly world destinations were expanding for ordinary tourists.

Bill passed on his love of travel, literature, film, song and storytelling to his sons, Liam and Timothy, both of Brooklyn and Christopher of Cambridge, and to his grandchildren, Aki and Taiga Davis of Brooklyn. His life will be celebrated with a funeral Mass, April 18, 11 a.m. at St. Peter Parish, Cambridge. A reception will follow. Post a message with Keefe Funeral Home, Cambridge.