By Kathy Chaffin
kchaffin@salisburypost.com
David B. Davis celebrated his 100th birthday Friday with the students and staff of the school he helped create.
North Hills Christian School went all out to celebrate the milestone birthday of its last remaining founder. Davis, who goes by Dave, and his family founded North Hills in 1967 with the late Roger Harrison and William Ryburn and their families.
Close to 300 students, staff, parents and board members attended the party in the school’s gymnasium. Retired North Hills employee Carolyn Barker picked Davis up at his Salisbury home and drove him to the celebration.
Students began streaming into the gym shortly after his 1 p.m. arrival, greeting Davis with hugs, cards and letters. His family members, neighbors and friends joined in the celebration.
Tim Norris, North Hills parent and chairman of the school board, opened the event with a prayer, thanking God for the “tremendous testimony” of Davis’ life. Because of the school he helped found, Norris said, “Thousands of young people have been blessed with a wonderful Christian education and are now ambassadors for Christ around the world.”
Amy Steiner, who taught at North Hills for 32 years, talked about some things she had observed about Davis. “I’ve always been touched by his evident love and knowledge of God’s Word,”she said. “He is a prayer warrior. He has kept North Hills Christian School before the Lord in prayer.”
Afterward, students in grades 1-5 lined up to form the number “100” on the bleachers and sang an upbeat version of “Jesus Loves You” with sign language.
Younger students made cards for Davis while the older ones wrote letters telling him how much he has meant to the school. Freshman Katherine Paul expressed her birthday wishes for him in a letter:
“I could wish you a long life, but God has already given it to you. I could wish you to be surrounded by loving friends, but I hope you realize you already have them. I could wish you the ability to change someone’s life for the better, but you’ve already changed mine.
“I now realize that all I can wish for you on your birthday is that you know how much this school means to me. You have been an angel for students like me. Because of North Hills, my future is bright; I ask God that yours is, as well.”
In an interview at his home on Wednesday, Davis said he was proud of North Hills and how much it has grown. “I’m really thankful to the good Lord for that,” he said. “North Hills is a Christian school. I’m not criticizing everyday public schools, but at this school, all of the teachers are Christians, and they’re teaching those boys and girls the real truths they need to know from the Bible.”
Davis said North Hills’ students will have the Christian background to go out and “be seeds, you might say, for the future.”
“It’s one thing to know the Bible,” he said, “but it’s another to teach it. They’ll be teaching somewhere else, and by being born-again Christians themselves, they’ll be able to empower other boys and girls.”
As for the school’s future, Davis said he’s confident that the Lord will continue to bless the school because it praises His Name and teaches His Word.
Helping to found North Hills is just one of Davis’ many accomplishments. A native of Wilson, he began his college education at Vanderbilt University and Peabody College in Nashville, Tenn., but had to drop out because of the Great Depression.
Once he had returned home, Davis went with his brother to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but still didn’t graduate. Instead, Davis went to work for the N.C. Highway Commission as an inspector, checking the stone in quarries to be used for major building projects.
During that time, he met Ruth Brock, the woman he would marry on June 13, 1937.
It was an assignment to inspect stone in the Woodleaf Quarry for the construction of Interstate 85 that brought the Davises to Salisbury. At that point, Dave returned to school at Catawba College, where one of his favorite classes was with physics professor Dr. Milton Braun.
While at Catawba, Davis worked as a photographer to help pay his tuition. His love of photography continued throughout his life and is evident by the photos that cover his refrigerator and walls of his home.
Upon graduating in 1944, Davis was recommended by Braun for a job at Columbia University in the SAM Lab, code for Secret Alloy Materials Lab. Better known as the Manhattan Project, his job was to help make a metal that would aid in the separation of uranium isotopes, which would be used in an atomic bomb.
Davis said he supervised a dozen or so students and three to four GIs at the lab.
He relocated to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1945 to continue his work. Later that year, on Aug. 6, then-President Harry Truman ordered U.S. troops to drop an atom bomb on Hiroshima.
Three days later, a second atomic bomb nearly obliterated Nagasaki.
Upon returning to Salisbury in 1946, Davis went to work as a physicist for Carolina Rubber Hose, where he worked for 33 years before retiring as executive vice president in 1979. He became very involved in his church and community, serving as an elder and deacon in the Presbyterian Church.
Davis taught Sunday school for 42 years; helped to establish the Bethel Colony of Mercy, a home for alcoholic men in Lenoir; and worked faithfully for the Gideons, serving as the second North Carolina state president of Gideons International.
Davis still has a copy of a Gideons New Testament that the group had to give out to students across the street from a school in Rutherford, N.J., after a woman complained about them being in the schools. The woman recently died, he said.
“I can’t say whether she’s gone up or gone down,” he said, “but I have a feeling about it.”
Davis’ beloved wife, Ruth, died in 1992, and he has photos of her all over his house and in the large woodworking shop behind it. A copy of her obituary and funeral program hangs on the wall.
Though the couple had no children of their own, Davis remains very close to his family, including his nephew, Dave Jordan of Salisbury.
Davis said he feels blessed to live to be a 100. The Lord’s been good to me,” he said, saying that being raised in a Christian home got him off to a good start. “We had family prayer every night.”
His father was a Methodist minister, Davis said, and traveled around the country speaking out against liquor traffic.
Though he gets up slower than he used to and uses a cane ó which he refers to as a “stick” ó to get around and has problems hearing and often has to ask people to repeat what they say, Davis is still able to live by himself.
His passion is his woodworking shop, and he loves to show it to visitors. The shop is the size of a small house and features just about any kind of equipment a woodworker could want.
Davis said he has used it to make tables, quilt racks, cutouts of Disney characters and letters, games. You name it, he’s probably made it. He seemed to enjoy explaining the different pieces of equipment and turned several on to make the demonstration clearer.
“Look at this,” he said. “Look back in here …”
His deep faith is reflected in the plaques and frames of scriptures, poems and quotes displayed all around. The wooden “Word of Life Bible Class” sign used to hang on his Sunday school class is also in his shop.
Though his memory is still sharp, Davis said he writes names and information on the back of photos just in case he is not able to remember the details.
“If you want to know more about my life,” he said, reaching for a 199-page transcript of interviews he did with former Rowan Public Librarian Kevin Cherry, “the library has a copy of this.”
Contact Kathy Chaffin at 704-797-4249.