Muncie Times, Muncie, Delaware County, 21 August 2003 — Page 3

The Muncie Times • August 21, 2003 • Page 3

Veteran BSU administrator David Davis dies

Dr. David Alonzo Davis

By The Editor Dr. David Alonzo Davis, a longtime Ball State University administrator, died suddenly last month in his Muncie home on Westminster Boulevard. The 53-year-old educator's death was a shock to friends and colleagues in the Ball State Admissions and Enrollment Services. Dr. Robert O. Foster, a retired Ball State professor and mentor to the deceased, said, “His death caught me on the blind side. He had called me over the weekend. We arranged to have lunch on Monday at 11:30 a.m., after his medical appointment. There were some things he wanted to talk about, including the growing pains of his

continued from page 1. Things are different now from the more aggressive movements of the 60s, when confronttion was more common. Today's protests are more peaceful and there seems to be less animosity between protestors and those in authority positions. Unless someone has lived under a rock for the last three-quarters of a century, he or she has least heard of Dr. Martin Luther

daughter.” After lunch at a fast food restaurant, Davis took Foster to show him his newly bought house. “He showed me around the house. It was a nice house that had just been redecorated. He was very proud of it. I told him I was proud of what he had done. He looked at me and said he needed to hear that,” Foster said. Then Davis drove Foster back to the restaurant parking lot where he had left his car. “He said he was going to the office because he had some work to do,” Foster said. “That was the last time that I saw him.” He was found dead the next day. Foster had known Davis from his undergraduate days at Ball State. Dr. Lawrence (Larry) A. Waters, Ball State’s dean of Admissions and Enrollment Services, was Davis’s boss. When Davis failed to show up for work, Waters went to his house. After opening a window that was slightly ajar in the otherwise locked house, he found Davis apparently dead in a bathroom. Water delivered the eulogy at Davis’s funeral in South Bend, Ind. He said:

King Jr. and Malcolm X, both dead, and former South African President Nelson Mandela. What follows below is an attempt to provide some information about some of the key figures in the civil rights movement. * Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the quintessential figurehead ot the civil rights movement. Known for his passivity and peaceful protests, King began a change that has been

“Amanda (the deceased’s daughter), members of the Davis family...We are the slaves of words. All too often, they are all we have to express those wordless feelings that so fill our minds and hearts. Yes, words are all we have and yet, at times such as this, they are simply not enough. “We are faced with a situation here where each of us, in his heart, must face a personal loss. Each of us will feel it and carry it and live with it, because someone we cherished so much has been removed from our lives.” We try to describe what we felt for our friend and colleague and, again, we are stuck with words. We use words like honor, but what does it really mean? We all stand as living proof of the substance of our friend. We saw his dedication. We were witness to his care and concern. We- stood in awe of his wit, intelligence, efficiency and tact. We whispered prayers of thanks that we were privileged enough to be associated with a person of his word. We lived our friend's honor, yet all we have is the word, which seems inadequate to do him justice. Certainly, there are other

snowballing ever since. It goes without saying that his methods are what make him stand in the spotlight, while others’ methods were by far less desirable; resulting in violence, murder and other operations that added fuel to the hatred and rough spots to the road of change being lain. King was born Michael Luther King Jr. on Jan. 15, 1929. He graduated from high school at 15 and began studying for his

words that we might usewords like dedication, intelligence, efficiency, morality. And all of these and more would fit him and a lexicon of superlatives would not be enough, for here was a man who bespoke the best definition of each term. “Yet we are heartened by the fact that rather than words, we will use our memories, those images that are inscribed within our hearts, to keep that part of him alive within us that we knew so well and to cherish the legacy that he has left for us all, that legacy of love and honor, which was his life and which, in truth, can never, never die.” Foster said he was asked by Davis Kappa Alpha Psi to speak at the funeral. He used that occasion to tell mourners and Kappas that that the deceased was a “very special man of God.” “I said there were many good things that had happened to him because he was a man who had been baptized in the name of God. He was involved in many activities to help other people. Even those he worked with had no idea of the many things he was doing for others. There were some things that he was

bachelor's degree, which he received from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. He won a fellowship and began his doctoral work at Boston University, from where he graduated in 1955. Photo at right: A supporter with a powerful statement; YES, Pm black, NO, Vm not a criminal continue on page 5.

doing that could not be seen with natural eyes,” said Foster, who baptized Davis and his wife. Davis obtained his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Ball State, where he also became director of the Office of Early Outreach Programs. At the time of his death he was principal investigator for a $3.4 million Gear Up grant, a federal program awarded to Ball State to get more low-income and first generation students to prepare for college. He is survived by his daughter, Amanda of Homewood, 111., mother, Ersaline of South Bend, three brothers, Leon and Jewel both of South Bend, and Eugene Jr. of Mufreesboro, Tenn.; and eight sisters, Faygene Cannaday, Lillian Stokes, Willa K, Lottie, Juanita Harris, Carol Powell, Louise Davis and Sandra Davis, all of South Bend, and Betty Thomas of Boston, Mass. Ball State will be establishing a scholarship in his name. Contributions may be made to the Ball State University Foundation for the David A. Davis Memorial Scholarship.