Emeritus Prof Davies dies on Scotland trip

The University community lost an irreplaceable member over spring break when Emeritus Professor Robert Davies died of a heart attack on Sunday March 7, during an after-dinner walk in Golspie, Scotland. Davies, at 73 an experienced mountain climber, died as he was preparing to climb the Cairngorn Mountains near Aberdeen, a range he had previously scaled. He had been at the University for nearly 40 years, beginning as a professor of biochemistry in 1955. Davies, who chaired the Faculty Senate during the 1989 academic year, was praised yesterday by many members of the faculty and administration for his dedication to the University community and academic pursuits. "He was a world authority on the energetics of muscle contraction," Emeritus Veterinary Professor Adelaide Delluva said. "He was a world class scientist, but he was always concerned in student protests. He supported them." Davies was remembered as a man who was always fighting for academic freedom. He became chairperson of the Committee on Open Expression in 1991 because it was a cause he felt very strongly about, according to Provost Michael Aiken. "He was very caring," Aiken said. "He was tremendously concerned about miscarriages of justice. He was one of those unusual people that universities can't function without." At the time of his death, Davies was also chairperson of the Just Cause Task Force, which is currently revising the faculty disciplinary procedures. "The thing that awed me was his willingness to do important things for Penn," Faculty Senate Chairperson David Hildebrand said. "We'll just have to find about six people to take over his jobs. There just aren't many like that. It's just a horrendous loss for the University." "He was an exceptional person," President Sheldon Hackney said. "[He was] sort of a citizen of the University that touched so many lives. He was a real University person." Among the vacancies Davies has left behind is his role as the University's resident pole climber. In 1969, University Police called Davies at 3 a.m. asking him to restring a College Green flagpole that students protesting the Vietnam War had damaged and greased. It took three hours for Davies to climb the pole and fix the rope. Davies academic contributions to the University were also numerous, as he did groundbreaking work on energetics of muscle contraction, a field he mainly pursued through the mid-1970s. In 1961, Davies was named chairperson of the Vet School's Department of Animal Biology and received the Benjamin Franklin professorship in 1970. It was in the late 1970s that Davies found his second academic calling -- astronomy and extraterrestrial life -- the subjects of a course he taught for over a decade. Off campus, Davies was also an accomplished diver, white water rafter and spelunker. He climbed the Matterhorn in Switzerland, the Grand Teton in Wyoming and Fujiyama in Japan, among others. He was also one of several scientists who volunteered to be held hostage in the Soviet Union so that dissident Yelena Bonner could leave that country for medical treatment. "It isn't often that a wife looks at her husband as her hero, but he was my hero," said Davies' wife, Medical School Associate Dean and Microbiology Professor Helen Davies. Besides his wife, Davies is survived by a daughter, Lisa Edwards, as well as his stepsons Daniel Conrad and Richard Conrad. A tribute to Davies will be held next Wednesday, March 24, at 4:00 p.m. in the Faculty Club. Everyone is welcome to attend. Biochemistry Professor Bernard Shapiro proposed an appropriate epitaph for Professor Emeritus Robert Davies at a reception honoring him in 1991: "Here lies Robert E. Davies, under the only stone he ever left unturned."

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