Necrology

Frederic Neil Davis '30

Feb. 19, 1909-Nov. 22, 2004

Frederic Neil Davis ’30, a former printing company owner who spent his entire working life in the printing industry, was born on February 19, 1909, to George W. and Miriam Hatfield Davis, in Syracuse, NY. He grew up in Buffalo where he was graduated from Lafayette High School in 1926. He came to the College that year and joined the then local fraternity Decagon. While on the Hill he virtually majored in student publications, becoming associate editor of Hamilton Life, managing editor of the Royal Gaboon, editor-in-chief of the Freshman Handbook, and features editor of the Hamiltonian. A member of the Press Board for four years and elected to the journalism honorary Pi Delta Epsilon, he left the Hill with his A.B. degree in 1930.

After brief employment with a printing company in Albany, Frederic Davis studied printing management for a year at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He returned to his hometown of Buffalo in 1932 and went to work for Huntington Press. Two years later, he established his own printing company in Buffalo, Davis Press. He subsequently became owner of a second company, Squirer & Davis, Inc. A member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts and past president of the Buffalo Club of Printing House Craftsmen, he was associated with Artcraft-Burow Printers when he retired in 1978.

Frederic N. Davis, a longtime resident of the Buffalo suburb of Williamsville, and a jazz devotee as well as a meticulous woodworker who enjoyed building his own radios and speakers, died on November 22, 2004, in Cheektowaga, NY, at the age of 95. He was predeceased by his wife, Jeanette Knowlton Davis, in 2000, and there are no immediate survivors.

Necrology Home