Phyllis Jean Davies

Phyllis Jean Davies

August 31, 2024

San Luis Obispo, California - Phyllis Jean Davies, 82, of San Luis Obispo, CA passed away peacefully Saturday August 31, 2024. Her celebration of life will be on Friday Sept 13, 2024, at 1:00 p.m. at the Madonna Inn dance floor in San Luis Obispo.

Phyllis was born in Los Angeles to Philip and Jeannette Armstrong, the oldest of three children. Her childhood was spent in Alaska and Bishop, CA, where her father practiced dentistry. She graduated from high school in Bishop and graduated from Cal Poly SLO in 1965, majoring in Agricultural Business. After graduation, she worked as a "cowboy" in Blythe, CA. Over the years, Phyllis worked in college as a switchboard operator at the Madonna Inn, a model, an actor in educational films, a school teacher in Watts in the late 1960's, a property manager, and was an author of 3 books, including Grief: Climb Toward Understanding. She met her husband Bill, in 1966, at the doors of the Madonna Inn. They married and had 3 children. She traveled extensively to an estimated 60 countries and engaged in activism for world agricultural and environmental sustainability, women's rights, inequality, poverty, family health care, peace, and bereavement support. She was the recipient of multiple awards, including the 1990 Cal Poly Alumnus of the Year and the 2018 Grace N. Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award from Cuesta College.

She is survived by her husband William Davies (Bill), her daughter Dawna Davies, her grandchild Trevyn Wong, her brothers Wesley Armstrong and Patrick Armstrong, and multiple nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her two sons, Dylan Davies in 1970 (stillborn) and Derek Davies in 1984 (plane crash), and her parents Jeannette and Philip Armstrong.

In her honor, she has requested donations to Groundswell International, Inc. www.groundswellinternational.org and American Friends Service Committee www.afsc.org.