John Woodrow Davis ’41

John Woodrow Davis ’41 of Hickory, N.C., passed away March 16, 2012, at Lutheran Home East. Davis was born in Croft, North Mecklenburg County, N.C., March 25, 1918, the son of Silas Winslow and Nancy Black Davis, youngest of 11 children. He graduated from Davidson in 1941, remaining for a year and a half as instructor in biology, attended the Medical College of UNC, then received his M.D. degree from Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in 1946. His internship was spent at Charlotte Memorial Hospital, following which he served in the U.S. Army, receiving his discharge as captain U.S. Army Medical Corps in 1949. That year, he moved his family to Hickory to start his practice, first at the old Hickory Memorial Hospital, and then in his private office, before joining with Drs. Joseph A. Isenhower, Benny Goodman, Charles Trado, Ted Chandler, and Grimes Byerly, in starting the Medical Arts Clinic, with Mack R. Means and Fred Fitzgerald opening the adjoining pharmacy. In the early 1950s, he served a year’s residency in internal medicine at N.C. Baptist Hospital, where he met another resident, Dr. Dan Espey, who later moved to Hickory to practice medicine nearby, and for a while they practiced together. In 1961, he became assistant director of the department of general practice at the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis. Then he returned to his Hickory practice until retiring in 1989. Davis was a charter member and elder in Northminster Presbyterian Church, where he and his wife also taught the Bible discovery class for many years. He was also a member of the AMA, AAFP, former member of the Hickory Optimist Club, and for five years served voluntarily as medical director of Hospice of Catawba Valley. He was also on the staff of Hickory Memorial Hospital, later as permanent chairman of Ten Broeck Hospital’s Board of Advisors until it was sold to Frye Regional Medical Center. After retirement, he was an enthusiastic member of the Hickory Coffee Club. He is survived by his wife, Lucy Hassell Davis [who has since passed away, Sept. 11, 2012], whom he married in 1943, soon after starting medical school; sons, Dr. John Woodrow Davis, Jr. ’66 (Joanna), 104 Trinity Way, Greenville, SC 29617-2028, Roger Pryor Davis (Bonnie), and James Hassell Davis ’76; daughters, Nancy Davis Bilbro (Cecil) and Katherine “Katie” Perkins (Russ); and daughter-in-law, Donna Davis. There are 11 grandchildren, Chris Davis (Yovanda), Deborah Renner (Robert), John Lynch Davis, Ginger Bedsole (Preston), Amy Hearring (Alvin), Catherine “Cathy” Davis, James Davis (Rachel), Chris Bilbro (Rita), Katherine Bilbro, Betsy Perkins, and Davis Perkins; four granddaughters, Stephanie, Caroline, Abigail, and Katie; 10 great-grandchildren and two on the way. He was preceded in death by his son, Dr. Archie Graham Davis ’68, and his grandson, Kevin.