Guy-Michael Benedict Davis

1936 - 2025

News story
By Mike Sigov
Blade Staff Writer

Guy-Michael Benedict Davis, a Toledo developer who tried to revive the city's nightlife amid the Savings and Loan Crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s and was known as a social justice champion, died Dec. 22 at his New York City home. He was 89.

He died of apparent heart failure, his daughter, Gabrielle Davis, said.

"He was passionately progressive and a risk-taker," former state Sen. Linda Furney said.

An early member of the northwest Ohio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union while in college, he chaired the agency for at least two terms in the early-to-mid 1960s and later entertained Democratic leaders and activists at his Rossford riverbank mansion.

Known to start his work day by reading The Blade, he had written to the editor about the importance of helping developing nations, environmental conservation, investing in education, and perceived government censorship of news media.

"He was a developer who also cared about his community and wanted it to be successful," said Mike Beazley, former Lucas County Democratic Party chairman and former Oregon administrator.

"He was also actively engaged in progressive causes back in the '70s and '80s and was involved in the community while also trying to be a successful developer," he continued.

Mr. Beazley also remembered Mr. Davis as a "very gracious, understanding, and flexible" landlord.

"There were lots of people in and out at all hours, and he let us stretch out our space," he said in reference to the party's former headquarters in a building owned by Mr. Davis at Michigan and Monroe streets in downtown Toledo.

His history as a landlord also attests to him being a risk-taker, Ms. Furney said.

"There are not many people who would have rented space to an abortion clinic in the early '80s, and he stepped forward and did that," the Toledo Democrat said. "It speaks a lot to his commitment to people and social justice."

Ms. Davis described her father in similar terms.

"He was committed to freedom and equality, and free speech and the ability of people to practice their own religions or no religion," she said, noting that he was a delegate to the 1965 Washington World Conference on Peace Through Law.

"For him, it was really all about civil liberties," Ms. Davis continued. "Throughout his life, he believed in a society that was just and fair and provided equal access and opportunities to everyone."

The socialite, who owned and renovated numerous building across the city, was also a storied art collector and a volunteer for the arts.

But most importantly, he was a proud Toledoan who worked with humility to make Toledo a better place, his daughter said.

"Toledo has had its share of flamboyant entrepreneurs who have left their names behind on statues, streets, parks, public and private buildings, [and] entire city blocks even," wrote Sally Vallongo, a retired Blade writer, in 1989. "Guy-Michael Benedict Davis doesn't run with crowd. Never did. Never will.

"His name could have gone on the newest thoroughfare in the new downtown entertainment district. Instead, it's called Frogtown Alley."

His description of the entertainment district development, organized by and financed through Daco Development Corp., his most recent enterprise, reflected his preference for pushing others into the spotlight.

Daco was really his children's operation, he told The Blade at the time. Never mind that he was president, it was his son, Adam, an economist, and daughter, at the time a second-year law student at the University of Toledo, who were the principal players, he said.

Over the years, Mr. Davis had also owned and operated the former Sam Davis Company, a family real estate investment firm started by his grandfather, Sam Davis, in 1904, and the Great Maumee Bay Mercantile & Trading Company, a West Toledo high-end boutique that specialized in fine home designs he found while traveling the world.

He also served on the boards of such local organizations as the Toledo Symphony, Toledo Museum of Art, David's House of Compassion, and Planned Parenthood of Toledo.

"A deal-maker he is. A Donald Trump he isn't," Ms. Vallongo wrote. "He laughs at the idea of any public tribute to his work, repeatedly turns down requests to speak before groups, even admits that making a toast at a party is a rare occurrence to him."

Born Dec. 10, 1936, in Toledo to Bernice and Roy C. Davis, he was a Maumee High School graduate with bachelor's degree in political science from Maine's Bowdoin College, where he graduated before studying foreign relations at the International Institute in Geneva for a time.

In 1966, he received a law degree from the University of Toledo's college of law.

While in law school, he was a night manager at Toledo's former Park Lane Hotel, an upscale hotel his father owned and operated. There, he got to know out-of-town celebrities and dignitaries and enjoyed showing them around town as a "proud, fifth-generation" Toledoan, Ms. Davis said.

It was during his time in college that he got involved with the social justice movement and the founders of the local ACLU chapter, his daughter said.

In 1961, he married the former Adrienne Pass, a local artist. They later divorced. She survives.

Once graduated from law school and after a stint at Melrod, Redman and Gartlan, a Washington law firm, he worked in investment banking at Toledo's former Roose, Wade & Co. for a time before taking over Sam Davis Co., which he eventually closed in the wake of the Savings and Loan Crisis, retiring from real estate by about 2000.

In retirement, he managed a bed and breakfast in Philadelphia's Society Hill neighborhood, before moving to New York City to be closer to his son's family.

Survivors include his daughter, Gabrielle Davis; son, Adam Davis; daughters-in-law, Sharon Barnes and Wendy Schwartzberg; and a grandson.

Services were private.