
At 11:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 15, family and friends of Jim Davis gathered in the new park at Liberty Station to dedicate the recently-installed Rotary International Clock in his memory. James McCoy Davis was born Oct. 19, 1914 in Columbus, Ohio and grew up there in the American Midwest. He was superbly educated with degrees in business from Ohio State University, Divinity from Oberlin Graduate School of Theology and a Ph.D. in education from Columbia University. Incredibly, he used all his education, having careers as a minister in congregational churches; as a professor and administrator at the universities of Washington, Michigan and United States International University in San Diego; and as a businessman running consulting and investment businesses. During World War II, he served as an Army chaplain in China, Burma and India with the 475th Infantry Division, called the Mars Task Force, a group that followed in the footsteps of the famous Merrill’s Marauders. Jim earned four Campaign Stars and a Bronze Star with an Oak Leaf Cluster, rising to the rank of major. After the war, Jim finished his education and pursued his multiple careers and married Phyllis Rowe, whom he met at Columbia. In 1973, Jim finally settled down, retired from education and returned to San Diego, entering the investment business. It was here that the Point Loma community really got to know him. He was committed to service and threw himself into civic organizations, serving as president of the Point Loma Rotary Club, president of the World Affairs Council, president of the Board of Consumer Credit Counselors, founding director of Baja Presbyterian Missions, grand juror for San Diego County, president of the Past Grand Jurors Association, and deacon of Westminster Presbyterian Church, where he also sang in the choir. Jim was a true internationalist and through Rotary and the World Affairs Council he, Phyllis and their family have traveled throughout the world. The Point Loma Rotary Club is very proud to have this Rotary Clock dedicated to the memory of Jim Davis and are grateful for the contributions of Point Loma Rotarians — in particular, Richard Thorn and Robert Wight, the Davis Family and the Hervey Fund of the San Diego Foundation — for making it possible. The club was delighted that Phyllis and four of the Davis children — Peri, Linda, Carol, Paul and granddaughter Amy were able to attend the ceremony. The fifth daughter, Jamie, was unable to come. Within Point Loma Rotary, Jim was famous for his knowledge and passion for Rotary International. He was our “Mr. Rotary.” Many of us knew him as a great Rotarian, as a civic or church leader or as husband and father. He was all these things. But most of all, he was a good and caring human being. A clock is the perfect reminder of the timelessness of Jim’s spirit. It lives today in all who have known him and the many others he touched in a long and remarkably fruitful life.