It didn’t jerk lengthy next “Mac,” as he was once identified by means of everybody, died in September 2021 for his community to resolve that they had to one way or the other honor his lifelong love for and deep loyalty to St. Thomas’ Magens Bay.
His spouse of 44 years, Deborah Kreke Davis, identified by means of everybody as “Debbie,” mentioned just lately, “As a semi-government agency, Magens Bay Authority cannot accept donations.” So, again to the strategy planning stage they went.
A investmrent was once established on the People Underpinning of the Virgin Islands the place society may just put together donations in honor of the departed Elliott McIver Davis and the place the community may just reserve its financial contribution.
Nearest a number of conversations with the MBA board, it was once determined that the easiest way to recognize Mac’s monumental contributions to the soil, which were deeded to the society of the Virgin Islands in continuity by means of Arthur Fairchild in 1947, could be to develop a condition path the place locals and vacationers indistinguishable may just make stronger their bodily well-being pace playing the wonderful thing about one of the crucial global’s 10 most pretty seashores.
Mac was once totally dedicated to bodily condition, at the side of being a marathon runner he additionally biked, labored out, paddle enroute and naturally swam.
Following in her father’s footsteps, daughter Elizabeth Voigt, who ran the Untouched York Town part marathon in March, mentioned previous this era, “Exercise is good for the soul.” Elizabeth additionally ran part of the 8 marathons that Mac finished along with her father.
Mac’s namesake, Elliott McIver Davis Jr., clash the grassland working just lately, and first-born son Joseph may be a runner, finishing his first marathon in October.
Early this era, hoping to be provide for the willpower, two of his 3 kids and 3 of his 5 grandchildren arrived on island, at the side of their vital others.
Elizabeth’s oldest daughter eight-year-old Clara was once exceptionally related to her grandfather. “He used to dig big holes and bury me in the sand,” she mentioned. The pair additionally shared glad instances swimming in combination within the turquoise bay.
It was once across the age that Clara and his oldest grandson Gresham have been born that Mac – who spent twenty years preventing again what he was once informed early on could be wretched kidney most cancers – took up pronouncing in emails and on Fb, pace protecting one in all his grandchildren in his fingers, “To think I might have missed this.”
Chances are you’ll say he gained his fight and his praise could be his age at the seaside he liked.
Upon escape from many years of carrier as an legal professional operating in numerous capacities for the Virgin Islands govt, he may well be discovered nice-looking a lot any past of the generation from 2 p.m. on basking at the seaside on the some distance southwestern finish that he known as his “happy place,” enjoying song — Alicia Keys specifically, in keeping with son Elliott — and deeply appreciating the era that docs informed him he would by no means have.
It will have to be famous that Mac additionally served at the board of the Magens Bay Authority for greater than a decade. “The staff loved and respected him,” Debbie famous. And he liked them.
He was once additionally deeply dedicated to escape the seaside controlled in the way in which that Fairchild had envisioned. In December 2020, not up to a yr earlier than he died, Davis penned a strongly worded op-ed piece that seemed within the Supply and the V.I. Day by day Information, roundly criticizing a invoice earlier than the V.I. Legislature that desire to politicize the MBA board.
“I consider the sanctuaries of Magens Bay Park and Smith Bay Park to be two of the most precious resources we possess as Virgin Islanders… They hold a special spot in the heart of every Virgin Islander,” nobody greater than Mac.
So, it’s going to be with gratitude and love that — particularly the ones folks who knew him properly — we will be able to make the most of the condition path that bears his identify pace protecting him in our hearts — which must be pumping wildly by means of the age we end figuring out.
Elliott McIver Davis persisted twenty years of most cancers remedies which gave him 19 years he idea he would by no means have. He beat the most cancers best to be taken indisposed on the time of 70 by means of vascular weakness.
However, as Debbie put it pace playing the corporate of her kids and grandchildren no longer some distance from Mac’s “happy place,” we will be able to “always feel his presence on this beach.”
