Wayne P. Davis (1920-2015)

DAVIS, PITMAN, RILEY, WEST, MONTGOMERY, BONOMI, HANSEN, BECERRA

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 2/10/2015 at 18:04:04

Obituary From Adams Soderstrum Funeral Home, Story County, Iowa.

Wayne P. Davis was born Sept. 9, 1920, near Phillipsburg, Mo., the only child of Dr. William Riley and Alice Pitman Davis. He died January 11, 2015, in Ames, Iowa.

Married May 28, 1944, to Jeanne Frances West, he was the father of three children, Dr. Kenneth W. Davis of Rio Rancho, N.M., Kathleen Jeanne (stillborn in 1950), and Polly Jeanne Montgomery of Omaha, Nebr., who died Aug. 2, 1995. Jeanne died June 25, 1975.

After a long courtship, Wayne married Ferne Gater Bonomi April 20, 1991, and she survives, as do Ken and Ken’s wife, Bette, and three grandchildren, Cassandra (Davis) Hansen, Evan Davis, and Andrea (Montgomery) Becerra. Cassandra and Eric Hansen live in Montclair, Va., Evan and his wife, Rebecca, and their son, William Thomas, in Fairfax, Va. and Andrea and her husband, Gabriel Becerra, live in Madison, Wisc. Andrea’s father, Karl Montgomery, lives in Omaha. Also surviving are two step-sons, Robert Bonomi of Evanston, Ill., and Scott Bonomi of Benecia, Ca.

Davis’ career spanned three disciplines: journalism, public relations and education. After college and working a year as news editor of the Albia (Iowa) newspapers, he leased The Moravia (Iowa) Union, which he published for two and a half years until his induction into the army toward the end of World War II.

Returning as a second lieutenant after 10 months in the Army of Occupation in Germany, he managed The Mille Lacs Messenger in Isle, Minn., for a few months before returning to Iowa in 1947 to purchase The Seymour Herald. During his 30 years in Seymour, he and his wife, Jeanne, were named Master Editor-Publishers by the Iowa Press Association (now the Iowa Newspaper Association) – the first couple to be so honored. Expanding his work in Seymour, he founded, in neighboring Allerton, The Allerton Advance in March 1948 and published it until November 1949. For a few months in 1967 he also served temporarily as managing editor of the Centerville (Iowa) Daily Iowegian.

Following Jeanne’s death – finding that running a “man and wife” newspaper without a wife wasn't’t fun anymore – he sought something else to do. Persuaded by Ferne that some of the skills he had learned in the newspaper business were transferable, he began work in February 1977 as public relations coordinator for the Iowa State Center, the performing arts complex at Iowa State University in Ames. He retired 10 years later as an assistant director of the center, responsible for marketing, public relations and sales.

Early in his tenure at the Iowa State Center, Davis joined the Public Relations Society of America and remained active in the Central Iowa Chapter, serving as a board member and secretary, and producing the chapter newsletter under seven presidents. He passed the national examination for Accreditation in Public Relations in 1992 – at age 71 – and is believed to have been the oldest person to have achieved accredited status through examination.

In 1988 he accepted a part-time appointment in the ISU Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, serving as a temporary instructor and as an aide to the department chair. When he retired 10 years later from what had become the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, he had served under three chairs and held the title of External Affairs Officer.

From the time of his separation from active army duty in 1946 until mandatory retirement in 1976, Davis pursued a concurrent career in the U. S. Army Reserve. Most of his service was in the information field, but included civil affairs, logistics and field press censorship responsibilities. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in 1972, and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal at the time of his retirement.

Davis held a bachelor of arts degree in human relations from The Principia College in Elsah, Ill., and a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri at Columbia. In 1988, 49 years after earning his first bachelor’s, he received a master of science degree in journalism from Iowa State University.

He was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity at the University of Missouri, was a founding member of the Lions club in Seymour, and maintained memberships in the Iowa Press Association/Iowa Newspaper Association, the Society of Professional Journalists (Sigma Delta Chi), the American Legion and the Reserve Officers Association.

During his years in Seymour he served as a director and president of the board of municipal utilities trustees, a member and assistant chief of the Seymour Volunteer Fire Department, president of the Genoa and Seymour Farmers Mutual Telephone Co., and president of both the Wayne County Chamber of Commerce and the Seymour Community Club. He participated in the activities of the Seymour Industrial Committee, the Seymour Housing Association and the Seymour Development Co., Inc. He and Jeanne were among the founding stockholders of the Seymour Care Center. During his years at Seymour he had been listed in Who’s Who in the Midwest. More recently he was listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World.

In Ames, he served as a director of the North Park Villa Homes Association, as a director and vice president of the Central Iowa Symphony board, as secretary and board member of the Central Iowa Symphony Foundation, and as a member of the executive committee of the ISU College for Seniors for 10 years. He served a three-year term on the board and was president of the Iowa Newspaper Foundation in 1992-93. The journalism faculty elected him as a Friend of the Department in 1996, and he received the Greenlee School’s highest honor, the J. W. Schwartz Award for Distinguished Service to Journalism, in 2005. He had retained an associate membership in the Iowa Newspaper Association and in 2007 received that organization’s Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Service to the Newspaper Industry.

A practicing Christian Scientist, Davis had served the Ames church in several capacities including treasurer, board member, assistant committee on publication and both first and second readers. His most recent term as first reader began Jan. 1, 2006.

The cremains will be interred next to his first wife and stillborn daughter in the Chariton, Iowa, municipal cemetery in a simple graveside gathering Saturday, January 17, at 2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Principia Corporation, 13201 Clayton Road, St. Louis, Mo. 63131, or to the Iowa State University Foundation, Ames, Ia., especially the Iowa State Center Programming Fund and the Greelee School of Journalism and Communication.

A "post-performance" reception in Davis' memory will be held in the late winter or spring at Iowa State Center in Ames.

JAN 17 Graveside Military Honors 02:00PM
Chariton Municipal Cemetery
47202 Iowa 14
Chariton, IA, US, 50049

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