Prof. Art Davis

In the spring 1993, my mother, sister and I drove from New York to Winona Lake, IN to visit this tiny college named Grace. I was considering transferring there from Bob Jones because at that time, they were one of the very few Christian colleges who offered graphic design. When I arrived, I was not all that impressed with the college or the town. Coming from Greenville and the high standards and curb appeal of BJU, I felt like I was in farmtown USA. Added to the fact that this was Winona Lake before all the amazing rejuvenation had occurred. We made our way up to this little house called Colonial Hall. I met the head of the Art Department, whose name was… Art. Prof. Art Davis showed me around and from the beginning, I liked the guy. I mean to start with, he was a Mac freak. Even back then, he was one of the few loyalists. His lab featured “cutting edge” (for me anyway) Macs with huge 22″ SuperMac monitors and even though it was in a small room, I was impressed. (BJU had pcs and I was not down with that at all). He was very personable and took alot of time explaining the program. In all honesty, that is why I transferred – because I felt that personal attention at this small school would help me get to where I wanted to go. And I felt that this guy really wanted me to be a part of his program. He approached Art from a Christian perspective, and so many of his former students respected him and spoke highly of him. Prof. Davis was not a dynamic speaker, or a dramatic guy. He was a steady, quiet man with a droll sense of humor and eye for detail. After I graduated and began to work for the school, I watched as he fought for improvement for the Art Department – and won big when the school was able to get Mount Memorial Hall and significantly increase the size of … the whole department. We finally had a real lab – with rows of gleaming Macs, a great gallery, an actual photography room (not a tiny, scary basement in an old house) a huge painting studio. It’s really a beautiful facility. I always enjoyed having the opportunity to run things by him as a colleague. He always kept me updated on current Apple news, and shared information about how to fix my computers. So many times he helped me fix problems because he always kept up on all the latest Mac fixes. I valued his opinion and insight on design that I was doing for the school. And even though he was not a harsh critic, he did tell me when he did not like something and gave me ideas about how I could better improve it. It’s funny looking back, I don’t think I ever called him Art though. He was always “Prof” to pretty much everyone who had ever been his student. Anyway, after I moved here to Voice, I found out he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s. It was hard seeing him tremble, but he continued on. I so admired that he stuck with it despite his difficulty. Last fall, right before Dave and Liz left for KC, Dave and I had the opportunity to chat with him at Welcome Weekend. Dave spoke with him for a while, and I was so glad that they had that time together. Prof had been battling with cancer, and after a recent surgery that they thought would take care of it, more cancer was found and it quickly spread. Yesterday afternoon I received an email that Professor Art Davis joined His great Creator in heaven at 1:55pm. He lived 61 years on earth. My thoughts and prayers are with his family, and I am so glad that we can rest in the knowledge that He is in the arms of Jesus today.