Topic: RIP, David E Davis

[Otto Puzzell]

David E. Davis, Jr. (1930-2011) was an automobile journalist and magazine publisher. His career in the automotive industry spanned from race car driver, factory worker and car salesman to ad salesman with Road & Track and copywriter for Corvette advertisements before becoming a writer for Car and Driver magazine in 1962. He wrote for that publication until 1967 and later became its editor and publisher from 1976 to 1985 before leaving to found Automobile magazine. Time magazine called Davis the "dean of automotive journalists."

When Automobile was acquired by Primedia, he also became the editorial director of the company's Motor Trend magazine. He eventually left the company and went into semi-retirement.

The July 2009 issue of Car and Driver featured a column by Davis where he announced he had returned to the magazine as a contributor.

In 2004, Davis received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the University of Michigan, and served as its spring commencement speaker. He received a standing ovation for the speech, which delved into the triumphs and tragedies of his personal life, including a race car accident at age 25 which left his face severely disfigured and required extensive plastic surgery. After that, he said, "I suddenly understood with great clarity that nothing in life — except death itself — was ever going to kill me. No meeting could ever go that badly. No client would ever be that angry. No business error would ever bring me as close to the brink as I had already been." He often described the incident in speaking engagements and columns as thoroughly life-changing, and says he was "born again."

Davis lived in Ann Arbor, (Michigan) at the time of his death on March 27, 2011 from complications following bladder cancer surgery.

[Ultra]