Deacon Davis, who served Overlea parish for decades, dies at 84

Deacon Henry A. Davis, who in retirement continued to give to St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Overlea, died Jan. 28 at Franklin Square Hospital. He was 84, and had suffered from lung cancer. 

Father James D. Proffitt, director of Clergy Personnel for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, worked with Deacon Davis from 2001 to 2009, when the priest was pastor of the parish on Belair Road that serves both Baltimore City and Baltimore County. He offered the homily at a Feb. 3 funeral Mass. 

“About a month after I became pastor, I named him pastoral associate,” Father Proffitt said. “I had known Henry from when I was a seminarian. He took to the task like gangbusters. He became like an office manager. My nickname for him was ‘GOD’ – good old deacon.”

Father Proffitt said that Deacon Davis and his late wife, Mary, were a team working together in RCIA and religious education.

“He ended up mentoring a lot of people,” Father Proffitt said. “He met people where they were. He was one of those deacons who got people past the idea that ‘we have to have a priest for a wedding or a baptism.’ Even in retirement, he continued to faithfully serve the community.”

Deacon Davis was ordained to the permanent diaconate in 1987. 

According to Conventual Franciscan Father Timothy Dore, pastor of St. Michael the Archangel, Deacon Davis served in the U.S. Air Force, as a motorcycle patrol officer for the Baltimore City Police and as a postmaster for the U.S. Post Office.

“He was the kind of guy who would do everything he could to serve the needs of the parish,” Father Dore wrote in an email to the Review. “Although retired, he continued to give to the ministry of the parish with great devotion. 

“Many families requested his services for funeral home, wakes and baptisms. He was very loved and respected by the parish family. I’ve spoken to a few people who happily reported that he had baptized them, offered them gentle spiritual counsel, and who had been inspired by him,” he wrote.

“Many have commented about the joy he will now have, as he is reunited with his faithful wife, Mary.”

The couple were the parents of four adult children, and had five grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

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