Stewart Thomas Davis

Stewart Thomas Davis, age 70, passed away very peacefully, Saturday, March 29, 2008, holding the hands of his best friends, wife Jean and daughter Marianne. His passing at Mountain View Regional Medical Center came after the sudden onset of Pulmonary Fibrosis. Born in Oroville, California October 4, 1937, Stew was adopted at three months of age by Robert A Davis, Sr. and Mary Hazel Stewart Davis and was raised in San Francisco. Stew attended San Francisco public schools and San Francisco City College. The family business, Davis Publishing Company, was started in the basement of the family home. This specialty company helped local policemen study for promotional exams. Because of its great success the business expanded to include printed study guides that were run off on an old mimeograph machine by Stew and his brother. This is where the printers ink first got under Stew's nails. After his Honorable Discharge from the Air Force in 1957, Stew rejoined the business in sales and production. When the business outgrew the family basement in 1960, the operation moved to a larger facility in San Francisco and added material for Firemen and Civil Service departments. In 1964 Stewart and the business moved to Santa Cruz, California. There with his family he became involved in many community organizations. That is also where his lifelong love of the game of golf found it origins and continued to flourish. As a founding member of the Aptos Club-Club, Stew and his golfing friends could be found every Wednesday evening sharing dinner and recapping that day's golf game. Stew was also a member of both the Aptos Seascape Golf Course and the Salinas Golf and Country Club and their Men's Golf Associations. After retirement from the publishing business in 1987, Stew served on the Santa Cruz County Grand Jury for two years as Grand Jury Foreman and was involved in the creation of CASA, (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and helped with the Santa Cruz County Youth Resource Bank. A renewed love of flying private airplanes allowed Stew and Jean to travel across the country to sight see, meet new friends, and play golf. He and his wife Jean along with other family members moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico in 1993. During these last 15 years, Stew continued his love of golf playing Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays with the numerous great friends he had made including the "Bandits" and Zia Seniors and the fierce Gin Rummy games he played with "the guys". Each Tuesday, lunchtime was reserved especially for his daughter, Marianne. Stew's love and pride in his grandsons, was obvious by the amount and quality of time he spent with them. He encouraged them to search for careers that would make them happy in life and to believe in themselves. Stew will always be remembered for his great generosity and value for his abundant friendships. He was a member in good standing of the Free & Accepted Masons of California, Occidental-California Lodge #1. During the last week Stew was heard to say, "Not bad for a kid who started in an orphanage to end up at the country club." He is survived by his wife and soul mate Jean, daughter Marianne and beloved grandsons David Kester, Jr. of Abilene, TX and Joseph Kester of Las Cruces, daughter Valerie and her sons Joshua and Gabriel of Watsonville, CA his brother Robert and wife Andrea Davis of Green Valley, AZ, brother-in-law and wife, Neil and Gayle Christian of Clemson, SC, and father-in-law, Leo Christian of Las Cruces, NM. There will be a Celebration of Stew's Life, Sunday, April 6, at the Picacho Hills Golf & Country Club 4pm. In lieu of flowers, donations in Stewart's memory are requested to be sent to La Casa, Inc. a domestic violence program, PO Box 2463, Las Cruces, NM 88004 or the NMSU School of Hotel, Restaurant & Tourism, attn: Professor John Hartley, PO Box 30003 MSC 3HRTM, Las Cruces, NM 88003, to be used for program development and student scholarships. PDF Printable Version