Latest / Legacy Stories / Gotta Have a System - George Davis Honors His Grandfather, Fred Davis

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Gotta Have a System - George Davis Honors His Grandfather, Fred Davis · Legacy Stories

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  Coming up on legacy stories. One of the things that he said
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  was a man's got to have a system.
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  You've got to have a system to do anything.
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  So you can't just attack a problem.
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  You have to figure it out and and go at it methodically.
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  That's the matter of engineering.
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  My guest this week is George Davis.
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  Have you ever looked back and realized that someone in your
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  family was teaching you lessons you didn't even know you were
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  learning? George has, and decades later,
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  he can still trace some of the most important lessons of his
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  life back to one special person. Hey George, welcome to Legacy
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  Stories. Thank you, Steve.
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  Good to be here. I'm so glad you're with me,
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  George. And before we talk about who you
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  came to honor today, I'd love for our listeners to know a
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  little bit more about you. All right, Steve, I'd be glad to
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  tell you it might be a little boring, but I'm from Nashville,
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  went to Tennessee State University and HBCU, and I
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  currently live in Los Angeles with my wife of almost 50 years
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  and my children and four grandchildren.
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  So I'm having a ball. Thanks, Greg.
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  Congratulations on that. So I was wondering if you'd like
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  to tell us a little bit about what you do for a living.
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  Sure, OK. When I was at Tennessee State, I
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  got my Bachelor's of Science and Engineering.
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  Decided to go to California to get my first job.
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  While I was there, I met my wife.
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  I retired from engineering in 2002.
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  Since then, my wife and I own a business which provides services
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  to the developmentally disabled population of Southern
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  California. OK.
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  It was quite a paradigm shift going from engineering to this,
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  but it it's been fulfilling and you have to have a special heart
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  for this. My wife, she's been doing this
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  for 40 years and I actually gave up my engineering career to join
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  her with it and we have been able to do that.
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  That is wonderful. Tanya and I have a son, Sam,
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  with autism. Oh, very good.
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  And so I care for people who care for people with special
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  needs. So I am glad that we are having
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  this visit together. Yes, I am too.
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  Well, George, tell me, who have you come to honor today?
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  I have come to honor my grandfather, my paternal
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  grandfather, Fred Russell Davis. His great influence in my life.
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  He had lived with us for the last 11 years.
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  He and I developed a very special bond on a number of
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  different levels that. Is so cool.
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  You know, not everybody gets to have their grandparents live
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  with them toward the end of the grandparents life.
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  So I know there's a story there. But before we tell that story,
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  George, tell us a little bit about what you know about your
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  grandfather's upbringing, his childhood.
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  Right. My grandfather was born in 1888
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  in Knoxville, TN. He was the last of seven
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  children. His mother died when he was four
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  years old. His father remarried shortly
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  after that, but his new wife did not like the idea of having the
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  baby of his previous wife around.
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  So my grandfather was raised by his two oldest sisters until he
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  got into his teenage years and was able to fend for himself.
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  That was about 1910 in Knoxville and there weren't too many
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  opportunities for him. He managed to get a fifth grade
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  education, which was pretty regular for black people of
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  Knoxville, TN and that era. He was a jockey at one point.
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  He was a farm man. He was a a laborer.
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  He did a number of odd jobs, but the the thing that he did that
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  was the most remarkable thing in his life, was that he married
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  above his station. His wife was a school teacher, a
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  few years older than him actually, and they had three
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  sons. My dad was the youngest of the
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  three. All three of them got their
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  college degrees and my dad got his pH DE in 1951.
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  Wow. So my grandmother and
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  grandfather had quite a successful marriage until she
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  died in 1948. He lived by himself until 1966
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  in Knoxville, and at that time urban renewal took his house.
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  So he came and moved in with us at the age of 78.
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  And from 78 until he died at age of 89, I learned so much from
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  him that I really wasn't aware that I was absorbing.
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  And I'm so, so much better of a person and a man for having been
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  influenced by his, by his presence during that time.
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  That is, that is so special. You know, I, I was reflecting on
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  what you said and he came up in a kind of an alternate path then
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  a conventional path being raised by his sisters, for example.
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  And I am wondering, do you think that he was just naturally an
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  independent soul? Because he seems like he was
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  quite self-sufficient. I think so, yes.
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  He didn't require, even when he was living with us at age 78, he
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  did not require a lot of oversight.
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  No one had to ask him to do anything.
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  He did it on his own. He he was quite independent.
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  And that was one of the things that I learned from him while
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  growing up was how to be independent, how you take care
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  of yourself and how you pull your own weight.
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  Well, that's interesting because I was going to ask you
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  specifically, George, when you think back to your childhood,
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  even before your young adulthood, did you have a close
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  relationship with your Grandpa Fred?
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  And do you remember those years as a child around your grandpa?
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  Yes, I do. I can tell you where you lived
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  in Knoxville, Four O 5 Batterson Street, right at the top of the
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  hill overlooking downtown Knoxville.
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  And I remember going up there many times and multiple times a
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  year before he moved in with us and spending much time at his
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  house. His house was modest.
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  It had a wrap around porch, which I loved I bet, but it was
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  just a three room house with a coal furnace, cold stove.
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  That's how he kept his heat. There wasn't much to it, but it
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  was full of love. I had a piano in it.
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  So yes, I do remember the years before he moved in with us as as
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  fondly as I do the years after he got there.
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  Well, when you think of life lessons that a child would
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  remember from a grandpa, can you name any of those?
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  Well, let me think about that. Take your time.
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  My grandfather lived on a pretty narrow St. and it was at the top
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  of a hill. So if you wanted to go anywhere,
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  to the store, to church, to get your hair cut, you had to
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  navigate that hill. And the cars were not as common
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  as they are now. So more often than not you
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  walked it. And I I've thought many times
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  about how much grit it took to have to navigate that hill for
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  days, weeks, months at a time and and ice and bad weather.
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  And because he did not have a car, it was it was walking and
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  and buses for him. So, yeah, I didn't really
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  realize that that I was getting that lesson from him at that
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  time because I was I guess I was nine years old when he moved in
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  with us. Maybe I was 8.
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  So, you know, I was just absorbing things that he that he
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  brought through the table in my in my word.
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  And I would bet you that those things you were absorbing then
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  made manifest when he came to live with you because he could,
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  he could offer those things on a more daily basis.
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  And I'd love to hear kind of your memories of him in the home
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  and some of those life lessons that he might have imparted to
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  you as you were growing up there.
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  Well, one of the jobs, I shouldn't say jobs, but one of
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  the tasks that he gladly took on for himself was to take care of
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  me and my sister. I was, as I said, I was 9.
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  I think Lynn was 6, maybe 7 when he moved in.
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  He was our babysitter. He allowed my mom and my dad to
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  have a life independent of us. And so one of the lessons that I
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  really learned from my grandfather was how not to take
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  on a task all at once. And if it's too big, taking on
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  in chunks. And we had a driveway that went
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  down into the backyard and my sister and I had a whole the
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  time going back up the hill with our bicycles without stopping
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  and pushing our bikes up the hill.
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  And I remember distinctly my grandfather telling me instead
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  of going up the hill straight on, go side to side and
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  switchbacks. It'll be a longer trip, but
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  you'll get up the hill without stopping and I've always
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  remembered that on so many different levels there's.
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  Some truth to that isn't there man.
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  Not me. Don't take it all on at once.
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  One thing that my grandfather said growing up, you used to
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  have all these little Pippy sayings and one applies to me
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  and my career as an engineer. And I didn't realize that he
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  drilled this into me. One of the things that he said
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  was a man's got to have a system.
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  You've got to have a system to do anything.
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  So you can't just attack a problem.
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  You have to figure it out and and go at it methodically.
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  And. That is the that's the matter of
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  engineering. That's fantastic.
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  I mean, that's problem solving. That's yeah, that's a lot of
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  things. Yeah.
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  That is so neat that he was able to impart that.
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  Yeah, he did not let his fifth grade education hold him back
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  from developing his family and his sons.
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  And I think that trait was passed on to my dad, who passed
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  it on to me, and I tried to pass it on to my kids too.
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  It's wonderful. Get your education.
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  Education is something that cannot be taken away from you,
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  and it's a desirable commodity and it's something that you can
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  use your whole life. My father epitomized that really
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  he by getting his PhD. He was the first one obviously
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  in our family to get a PhD to get an advanced degree.
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  I am trying to imagine how proud your grandpa Fred and your
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  grandma must have been of your father when he received his PhD.
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  Well, my grandmother died while my father was in grad school at
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  the University of Pittsburgh, so she did not get to see that day.
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  She died in 48. He got his degree in 51.
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  But she was a part of everything he did.
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  He was very much devoted to his mother.
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  And yeah, my grandfather was, you know, over the moon, I'm
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  sure. Yeah, I'm picturing just, you
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  know, I'm just kind of musing in my mind.
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  Your grandpa telling your dad, your mom is be so proud of you
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  right now. And I of course, I happen to
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  believe that your grandma was looking down quite proud of him
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  at the time. But that is a really beautiful
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  story. And it just speaks to the world
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  of your grandparents that they they instilled that love of
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  education in your parents so. Thank you, Steve.
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  I, I, I want to honor my grandfather any way that I can.
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  My grandfather died in 1977. I wasn't even 20 years old.
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  I was still a teenager and I did not realize at that time the
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  wisdom that he gave to me and, and how he was preparing me to
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  be what I am now, which is a 68 year old man.
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  And, and a lot of the things you know, that I've done between the
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  time that he passed and I was 20.
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  And now when I'm 68, I can draw a tangent right to him and and
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  say that I learned this from him.
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  That's wonderful. You know, one of the things my
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  grandfather used to love to do and did it incessantly, would
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  give praise to God for nearly everything that goes on,
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  everything from plants coming up to the progress of civil rights
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  in the 60s when he was 80 years old and knew where we had come
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  from, how far we had come. And he would always say ape, the
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  good Lord's worst wonderful. Wow.
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  And I appreciate him so much and I'm, I'm so glad that you have
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  given me the opportunity to honor him because he deserves
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  honor in my life, in my particular life and, and, and so
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  many others. Because as I think about it, his
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  progeny go down 4 generations now.
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  And there's so many remarkable people in that 4 generations.
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  It all started with him and he was a rejected, you know, 5 year
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  old. Golly.
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  And pre 20th century Sal, a black kid and he managed to
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  build this somehow or another. It's it's great.
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  Well, George, thank you so much for joining me on Legacy Stories
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  this week and helping us learn more about Grandpa Fred Davis.
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  Thank you Steve for the opportunity.
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  It's been great. And thank you for allowing me to
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  relive his memories and his lessons all.
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  Right. Take care.
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  You too. Thank you for listening.
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  I invite you to visit Legacy Stories dot US, where you'll
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  find photos from George's family collection along with other
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  resources inspired by today's visit.
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  And today, if you'll stay with us just a little longer, George
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  shared one more memory of his grandfather with me, and I
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  wanted you to hear it. So here is Father of the Year,
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  George. I was wondering if you'd like to
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  tell us a little bit about memories of Grandpa and the
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  family going to church. Sure.
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  Well, he came to live with us in 1966 and at that time we were
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  not members of Saint Andrew's Presbyterian Church.
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  We were all members of John Calvin Presbyterian Church and
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  transferred membership over to Saint Andrew's.
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  But once we all went over to Saint Andrews, my grandfather
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  really thrived. He was well respected, and he
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  culminated in him being named the Father of the Year in 1976
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  at that church. Wow.
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  Yeah. He was very proud of that.
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  And we all were just remarkable that he made that much inroads
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  just by presidents alone, really to be named father of the year.
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  And he hung that plaque in his room very proudly.
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  And you know what? I may have done my math wrong,
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  but I believe he got father of the year when he was 88 years
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  old. Correct.
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  That is correct. Yes, Sir, that is correct.
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  That's all we all need to know right there.
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  An 88 year old man was named Father of the Year at Saint
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  Andrew's Presbyterian Church.