Roderic H. Davison ’37

Learned historian, accordion player, quartet singer, and faithful Princetonian, Rod Davison, died Mar. 23, 1996, of lung complications. His wife, Louise, whom he married in 1949 (with Bob Edwards as usher) died in 1991. He left sons John and Richard *78 and almost three grandchildren, Kathryn being the first girl born into the family in three generations.

At Princeton Rod majored in history and graduated with highest honors and too many other honors to mention, beside Phi Beta Kappa, varsity soccer, and the Daily Princetonian.

After PhD work at Harvard and instructing in history at Princeton, came four years during WWII when he was in Europe on relief work, a diplomatic intern in Germany, and in a conscientious objectors' work camp in New York. He spent over 46 years in teaching, specializing in the Ottoman Empire and teaching European history at George Washington U. He became a full professor in 1954 and retired emeritus in 1986 but continued teaching part-time until the early 1990s. George Washington U. gave him an honorary doctor of humane letters degree in 1994, with Hillary Clinton looking on. He served as president of both the Middle East Studies Assn. and the Turkish Studies Assn., as well as treasurer of the American Historical Assn., with three books and over 50 articles to his credit.

We have lost another very special one.

The Class of 1937