G. Michael Davis
G. Michael Davis of Swarthmore, a veteran educator and retired Strath Haven High School English teacher, passed away peacefully at his home on February 25. He suffered a fall in late December and never recovered from the combination of this injury and the ongoing challenges of Parkinson’s disease. He was 82.
The son of the late Gordon R. and Salome E. Davis, Mike was born at the home of his Davis grandparents in Marysville, Pennsylvania. Following in his father’s military-service footsteps, he joined the U.S. Navy in 1955. He served as a hospital corpsman until 1959 and later joined the U.S. Naval Reserve. Mike was commissioned as an ensign in 1963 and served as a line officer in reserve crews for several ships. He received an honorable discharge in 1973.
Mike received both his bachelor’s (1963) and master’s (1973) degrees in education from West Chester State College, now West Chester University. Both of his parents and his maternal and paternal grandfathers were also educators. He earned his doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education in 1983, and, in 1993, he received the school’s William. B. Castetter Alumni Award of Merit. For several years, Mike held the volunteer role of president of the graduate program’s Education Alumni Association.
In 1978, a chance encounter at the University of Pennsylvania’s pub, Smokey Joe’s, introduced Mike to his future wife Ginny, a Penn freshman. They quickly fell in love, and they married on June 30, 1979. On the 25th anniversary of their wedding day, they renewed their vows at the Holy Trinity Church in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where Ginny’s great-grandparents had worshiped.
In 1963, Mike began his teaching career at Henderson High School in West Chester. In 1965, he accepted a teaching position at Nether Providence High School. In 1983, he was an active member of the school’s merger committee when Nether Providence and Swarthmore high schools were merging to form Strath Haven High School. Mike received the Wallingford-Swarthmore Education Association’s Educator’s Award for his outstanding contributions to education in the academic year 1997-1998. Mike especially enjoyed teaching speech, British literature, poetry, and Advanced Placement English. Many of his high school students will recall that he taught them how to properly construct a research paper. One of his favorite courses was “Word Power,” in which he taught his students using a game designed by his son Michael.
Mike’s wife and children gave him great joy, and he especially enjoyed spending time with his five grandchildren. His love of teaching inspired two of his children, Wendy and Gordon, to become educators. His son Michael served in the U.S. Coast Guard for several years. His youngest daughter, Sarah, is a writer.
Like so many other teachers, Mike held extra jobs to support his family. He coached with Nether Providence High School’s legendary men’s soccer coach, Chris Jones, served in assistant coaching positions for football and girls track teams, and supervised street hockey games. He also served as the faculty sponsor for the high school’s yearbook and literary magazine. For many years, he enjoyed serving as a cooperating teacher for student teaching programs at West Chester University, Swarthmore College, and Widener University in their schools of education. Most recently, Mike operated an editing business and guided doctoral students through the writing of their dissertations.
Mike’s love of teaching never waned. After retiring in 2002 from Strath Haven High School, he began supervising student-teaching experiences for Widener University’s Graduate School of Education. As an adjunct professor at Widener, he taught composition and graduate-level education courses, and offered writing instruction to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students at Widener’s Writing Center. He retired from Widener in 2018, proud to have attained his goal of serving as an educator for 55 years. Mike truly enjoyed teaching all students, regardless of their academic ability. His kind and friendly manner, plus his unfailing encouragement of others, boosted the academic confidence of many of his students throughout his teaching career.
An active member of the Episcopal Church, Mike served as a member of the vestry, led committees, and performed several lay ministry duties for his church. He was a former member of St. Mary’s Hamilton Village, Christ Church Ridley Park, and Trinity Church Swarthmore. Mike’s lifelong affiliation with Christ Church Media had begun in the 1940s when he sang in the boys’ choir.
Mike is survived by his beloved wife of 41 years, Ginny (née Brown); his four children, Wendy of Brick, New Jersey, Michael of Landisville, Pennsylvania, Gordon (Jenna) of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and Sarah of Swarthmore; and his grandchildren, John Wallace, Matthew, Michael, Megan, and Emily. He is also survived by his brothers, R. Alan Davis of Lancaster, W. Geoffrey Davis (Janet) of Gettysburg, and C. Robert Davis (Linda) of Newark, Delaware; and several nieces and nephews. He leaves behind his beloved Alleman family cousins, all of them descendants of Ira and Mary Alleman of Middletown, Pennsylvania, and his dear friends Lisa and John Rooney of Merion.
The family regrets to announce that, due to the ongoing danger of COVID transmission, no visitation hours will be held. A private funeral mass will be held at 11 a.m. on March 6 at Christ Church in Media. It will be livestreamed on the church’s website, christchurchmedia.org, beginning at 10:45 a.m. Mike’s body will be cremated, and the U.S. Navy will bury his ashes at sea.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to Christ Church Media, or to support a scholarship that will be established for students at Strath Haven High School who plan to study teacher education at the postsecondary level. Visit the online remembrance site.
