Davis, Gary W. (7/17/2009)

From Ben Riley, Class Historian, December 2009

Dear Classmates: 
I regret to inform you of the death of our classmate, Gary Wayne Davis.  Gary, who lived in Exton, Pennsylvania, passed away on July 17, 2009.  We received this note from his wife Deborah:  “My beloved husband Gary Davis ‘79 passed away 7/17/09 from a brief struggle with Leukemia.  He loved going to and supporting Dartmouth.  He is grateful for the blessing of his Ivy League education, and used his gift of teaching his whole life.”
Gary was a high school principal at Delaware County Christian School where he had also served as a teacher and football coach for many years.  He is survived by his wife Deborah, two sons, two daughters, and a daughter-in-law.  At Dartmouth, Gary was involved in intramural athletics, the Inter-dormitory Council and the Classics Club.

From the Delaware County Christian School Keynoter

Gary Davis, High School Principal, went to be with the Lord on July 17, after fighting Leukemia.  Gary will be greatly missed by his wife Deborah, Matt (‘02) and his wife Stephanie (who are expecting their first child in November), Josh (‘04), Alisha (‘07) and Hanna (entering 5th grade).

Gary joined the DC faculty twelve years ago as DC’s first full-time Bible teacher and was appointed High School Principal in 2006.  A native of New England, Gary graduated from Dartmouth College and began teaching and coaching football at several New England prep schools.  He earned a Master’s in Divinity from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.  During his 12 years at DC, Gary had a significant impact on the lives of many students and colleagues.  As Bible department chair, Gary was the chief architect of the high school Bible curriculum, and taught most of the courses in the department during his tenure.  Gary loved to teach, and was always concerned when he had to miss a class.  His natural administrative abilities drew him into leadership roles and Gary was widely known as a wise and respected leader.  Gary loved and served his Lord and cared deeply for his students, who he affectionately referred to as his “cherubs.”  He was a passionate teacher of the Word of God.  He was a gifted chapel speaker as well as a gifted classroom teacher.  His infectious and booming laughter will be missed in the hallways, the high school office, in faculty meetings and on the football field.

While Gary is with His Lord and is now completely healed, his presence will be missed by the DC community.  “When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:  Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?”  I Corinthians 15:54

From Phil Odence, December 2009
Gary was a “say Hi to walking across the Green” sorta friend of mine. Although news of his death was a great blow, the mention of his involvement in intramural athletes brought back to me the memory of one of the greatest moments ever in amateur sport.
Both Gary and I had been recruited during the pre-freshman summer by our zealous dorm Athletic Chair to play football for the Cohen Hall Raiders (or whatever we were called). On the strength of a number of freshman, we had a very competitive team. Gary, always built low to the ground, was our sturdy Center.  A quirk in the rules of football allows the Center to be eligible to receive a pass under certain conditions. Richard Hooker, in his book Mash, exploited this loophole, and perhaps invented the “Center Eligible” play which gave the 4077 MASH unit their big win. Always intrigued by the play, I shared it with the team and we enthusiastically included it in our playbook, Gary, of course being especially behind it.
In the dwindling minutes of the dorm finals, needing a touchdown, we found ourselves 3rd and long on the other team’s 15 yard line. The lineman all set up to Gary’s right save for a wide receiver to his left. Just before the snap the wide receiver took a step back (that’s the trick).  The QB rolled right and receivers went the same way.  As the defense followed the play to our right side of the field and after a half-hearted block, Gary sauntered off towards the left unobtrusively. Of course, the QB flipped the ball into the left corner, and Gary (no one within 15 yard of him) plucked it from the air and became the hero of the day.
I may not have seen Gary since graduation, but from what I gather of his activities since then, he’s remained a hero to his family and the kids of the Delaware County Christian School.

From Scott Foster, January 2010
I knew Gary best during our sophomore year.  All of the upper classmen in our dormitory had moved out or moved on, so the realm was ruled by us wise fools.  In fact we ended up with a tight-knit group of a few sophomores and many frosh for the better part of the year.  Our endeavors in the intramural sports competition moved Cohen Hall (re-baptized in our year from the Cohen Crabs to the Cohen Cox) to 2nd place by the end of the year.  We might have done better had the fraternity rush near the end not gutted our teams of the best young performers!
None of that seems to be about Gary specifically, yet he was a core if not the core of that group.  He actively participated in all of the activities and succeeded in motivating various combinations onto the fields of play.
The best anecdote in fact comes from the winter, when Cohen and Bissell got into a major dormitory-wide snowball fight that lasted until the early hours of the morning.  The “conflict” turned as much into a water fight as a snow fight, and the dormitories were….. trashed.  Once a ceasefire was declared, Gary marshaled the troops into getting out the bucket and mop brigades to clean the place up.  By 1 or 2 am the place was spotless.  When the guardian showed up the next morning, she had no indication of anything amiss.  Bissell, on the other hand, was basically a frozen waterfall.
A silly anecdote, perhaps, but it captures for me the essence of Gary:  an engine for fun, team dynamics, leadership, and responsibility.  He demonstrated those traits throughout his Dartmouth years (and I imagine beyond).
The Dartmouth Plan moved us all in different directions after that year, and each quarter had its own personality – no full school year had the cohesiveness of that one.  After graduation I did not stay in contact with Gary and did not have news of him until your email.
It is with sad but fond memory that we say goodbye to Gary Davis.

In memory of Gary W. Davis, the Class of 1979 has purchased the following book for Baker Library:
Tullio Lombardo and Venetian High Renaissance Sculpture by Alison Luchs, Yale University Press, 2009