John Edward Davis, MD

John Edward Davis M.D.

Manchester, NH - John Edward Davis M.D., known to friends and colleagues as "Jack", died on January 17, 2013 at the Hackett Hill Healthcare Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, a few weeks short of his 93rd birthday. Jack was a long time resident of Troy, New York, where he grew up, raised a family, and practiced medicine until his retirement in 1990. His beloved wife Janet, his children, their spouses, a grandchild and her spouse, were all at his bedside when he passed away after several years of declining health.

John Edward Davis was born in Hamilton, Ontario on February 11, 1920. His parents, George and Grace Davis, and older brothers George and Robert, all now deceased, lived in Canada for several years where George Sr. was employed as a mining engineer. The family returned to the U.S. and settled in Troy, New York in 1925, living for many years on Brunswick Road. Jack attended Public School 18, Troy High School, graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1941, and Albany Medical College in 1944. During WWII he served as a Lieutenant Senior Grade in the U.S. Naval Medical Corps, stationed in the Pacific on the island of Saipan.

After the war, a mutual friend of his parents and Raymond and Cherrie Hannon, also of Troy, arranged a dinner party for him to meet the Hannon's daughter, Janet. He went reluctantly, but was smitten with the beautiful girl about to enter her senior year at Wellesley College. They married in 1948.

After further medical training as a surgeon and otolaryngologist in Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, Jack was recalled by the Navy during the Korean War and served as Chief of Otolaryngology at Bainbridge Naval Hospital in Maryland.

In 1953 Jack and Janet returned to Troy where they made their home, established Jack's medical practice and raised their family. Dr. Davis was a member of the surgical staff at both the Samaritan and St. Mary's Hospitals and served as President of the Medical Staff at Samaritan.

Jack was a lifelong athlete -- a backcountry skier and pickup hockey player as a boy, a football player, swimmer, diver in college, and well into his sixties, an avid squash player and golfer at the Troy Country Club, where he and his brothers had once worked as caddies. Famously tough, after having his nose broken during a lunchtime squash game, he set it himself in the locker room and went back to work. At the age of 50 he got his private pilot's license and logged hundreds of hours including trips to the Caribbean and cross-country to Arizona.

In 1995 Jack and Janet moved to the Birch Hill Terrace retirement community in Manchester, New Hampshire to be closer to their children and grandchildren. On May 15, 2012 they celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary.

A warm, funny, and loving man with many friends, Jack was a devoted husband and father who encouraged his children to pursue their own paths in life, however strange they may have seemed to him at the time, and taught them, by example, that honoring one's spouse and marriage was the key to a happy life.

Jack is survived by his wife, Janet Davis of Manchester, NH; son Mark Davis and his wife, Jane Niebling, of Newburyport, MA; daughter Carol Davis and her husband, Jack Rodie, of York, ME; son Robert Davis and his wife, Annmarie, of West Hartford, CT; grandchildren Anna Davis Saraceno, Harley Davis, Raymond Davis, Daniel Davis, Mary Davis, and Jesse Rodie; and great-grandchildren Thalia Saraceno and Jonathan Rodie.

A memorial service will be held in the Spring at the Bryce Funeral Home, Inc. 276 Pawling Avenue Troy.

Inurnment will be in Oakwood Cemetery Troy.

In lieu of flowers contributions may be made in memory of John Edward Davis MD to the charity of one's choice.

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