SAM H. DAVIS JR.
12/19/1930 - 12/25/2022
Beloved husband, father, stepfather, grandfather, uncle, friend, neighbor and professor, Samuel Henry Davis, Jr. passed away peacefully on the morning of December 25th.
A professor at Rice University for 50 years (19572008), Sam taught primarily chemical engineering and loved teaching thousands of students, including preparing many to master FORTRAN and mentoring them in various roles as director of the Office of Continuing Studies, Sid Richardson College Faculty Associate, and Magister of Jones College. Beyond the Rice campus, he extended his teaching with a sabbatical to Edinburgh University in 1982-83 and contributed research to various energy projects as well as NASA’s space program, where he helped to design the system supplying oxygen to astronauts.
Born to Irene and Samuel H. Davis, Sr. in Houston in 1930, Sam grew up with his sister Joann along the banks of Buffalo Bayou. His intelligence and hard work at Lamar High School earned him the opportunity to attend Rice University (then known as the Rice Institute) tuitionfree, where he made life-long friends and graduated from a five-year program, granting him two degrees: a BA (with Distinction) in 1952 and a BS in chemical engineering in 1953. Just before his graduation in 1952, he was also elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and to Tau Beta Pi.
From Rice, Sam went on to earn his doctorate from MIT and then worked for General Electric in Connecticut until Rice asked him to join their faculty in 1957. Even after Sam retired from Rice, he and his wife, Priscilla Jane Huston, continued to be active members of the Rice community, attending various university and faculty events.
Those who had the fortune to know Sam especially admired his deep generosity, his acceptance of others, his positive attitude, his knack with numbers, his unparalleled patience, and his dry sense of humor. He was a devoted husband, a loving father, a proud grandfather, and a lifelong lover of learning. His quiet strength and resilience were also inspiring, having survived cancer, COVID and a notorious fall off a mountain trail in Big Bend.
Early on, he learned to fly planes and was an avid bicycler and handball and squash player. Sam also inherited a love of being outdoors and gardening, which led him to build a second home in 1972 outside of Burton, Texas. Simply called “The Farm,” this is where he shared many special memories with family and friends and developed his passion for growing tomatoes. Later in life, he never grew tired of reading the newspaper, following politics, going to theatre, checking out the nearest ice cream parlor, sitting with Priscilla on their porch at their house on Bungay Lake in North Attleboro, Massachusetts or traveling, including marathon road trips across the country and long stays in Washington, D.C. and Australia.
On his 90th birthday, when asked about his happiest moment, he did not hesitate to say it would be marrying Priscilla with their family and friends around them.
He lived a full and happy life of 92 years, leaving behind his beloved wife, Priscilla Jane Huston of 38 years; his children and their spouses, Merrill Davis and Nils Andresen, Kate and Scott Lambert, Penn and Debbie Huston, Allison Marshall, and Lindy Kottcamp; and his grandchildren, Cassandra and Tyler Maydew, Nicholas Kottcamp, Ashton Lambert, Spencer Huston, Benjamin Kottcamp, Gillian Huston, Meredith Huston, Duncan Lambert, Adam Marshall, and Nathaniel Marshall.
Family and friends will be gathering to celebrate Sam’s life at noon on March 25, 2023 on The Rice University campus in the Anderson Clark Center, the building that houses The Glasscock School of Continuing Studies. Please use Entrance 8 and park in West Lot 4 if you plan to join us.
In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests that memorial gifts be made to the Rice Second Century Endowed Scholarship of Rice University or something specific at the university that Sam or you are passionate about such as Chemical Engineering, Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, Jones College, or Shepherd School of Music. Gifts may be made online at giving.rice.edu or sent to Rice University, Office of Development MS-81, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX, 77005.
To RSVP for the Celebration of Sam’s Life or to leave a tribute in his honor, please visit this website: https:// www.mykeeper.com/profile/ SamDavis/. An RSVP is not essential, but it could help us in our planning.