David Russell Davis died peacefully at home following a stroke. His greatest passions in life were reading, traveling, learning languages, and meeting people.

David - called Bud in his youth - was born in Teton, Idaho. His earliest years were spent in a three-room farmhouse, with no running water and a woodstove for heat, in the foothills of the Teton Mountains. His family later moved to the small town of Rexburg, where Bud attended the local schools. From a young age, he loved reading, which his mother, a former teacher, encouraged. His first paying job was at a local print shop, where he received books as wages. Bud took advantage of living near the mountains when school and chores allowed: he spent winters skiing, and summers exploring the region's natural wonders. By the age of 19, he had twice climbed the Grand Teton using only a hemp rope for "protection."

In 1943, Bud entered Willamette University in Salem, OR, through the V-12 Navy Officer Training Program. He graduated college in 20 months and immediately matriculated in University of Oregon Medical School. In 1947, he took a leave from med school to travel to Europe. He hitchhiked to New York and eventually reached France on a decommissioned troop ship. His medical knowledge and fluency in French earned him a job with the US Army's Graves Registration Command. Directing a team of Algerian grave diggers, he followed the path of Patton's Third Army across Northern France, disinterring fallen American soldiers from battlefield graves to identify and deliver their bodies for permanent interment in military cemeteries. He next travelled to Greece, where his proficiency in Greek secured him a job scheduling supply deliveries across the former Mediterranean Theatre under the Marshall Plan. Bud persuaded the pilots he met through his work to drop him places around the continent. The experiences and friendships formed during his two years in Europe made it his most fondly remembered time of life.

David, dropping the nickname Bud, returned to medical school and graduated in 1951 and began residency in St. Paul, MN while still affiliated with the Navy's V-12 program. Deployed to Korea in 1952, he was attached to the US First Marine Division as a medical officer in a Marine Corps forward medical facility. Later, he would attribute the hearing loss he experienced, in part, to the deafening fire from the artillery batteries frequently surrounding his field hospital. Ultimately, he was awarded a Bronze Star for his service. After Korea, David was stationed at the naval hospital in Yokosuka, Japan, then sent to French Indochina, where he served in Saigon as a French interpreter for a US naval unit providing advisory support to the French and South Vietnamese militaries.

Returning stateside in 1955, David completed a general surgery residency at the US Veterans Hospital in the Bronx, NY. In New York he met and married Mara Krasnopolsky, an actress and the beautiful sister of a med school classmate. The couple welcomed two children while in New York before moving west, settling in Medina where their third child was born. David established his surgical practice in 1960, the same year Overlake Hospital opened, where he was the first general surgeon on staff. David's surgical practice grew with the Eastside, and he witnessed Overlake evolve from a 56-bed community hospital to a regional medical center. Over four decades he managed a thriving practice while contributing to the greater community. In the 60s, he volunteered his services abroad in Algeria and locally to such institutions as the old Luther Burbank School for Boys and Planned Parenthood. Pursuing his interest in history, he also served as president of the Bellevue Historical Society. Later, he was instrumental in the transition of the old Kirkland Hospital to Evergreen Hospital. He sat on the boards of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, the Seattle Surgical Society, and the King County Medical Society, serving terms as president of the latter two. He took pride in performing many straightforward procedures in his office that had traditionally been done in the hospital, saving his patients time and money. Although respected professionally, what David enjoyed most about medicine was the opportunity to meet a wide variety of people. He had a genuine interest in each patient's story; it was this curiosity, as much as his surgical skill, that made him a gifted physician. And he never stopped being an old-fashioned doctor, making house calls until his retirement in 1997.

In the early 1980s, David met the charismatic Jane Lang, an art collector and Seattle-area philanthropist; they married in 1985. David became involved in philanthropy for arts organizations in Seattle. He served as president of the board of the Seattle Public Library Foundation, and on the boards of the Seattle Symphony and the Seattle Chamber Music Society. And he kept on traveling: as members of the Museum of Modern Art International Council, David and Jane visited India, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and most of Europe. They remained active in the Seattle philanthropy community, collecting art and entertaining at their homes in Medina and Maui until Jane's death in 2017.

In his final years, David lived independently at The Gardens at Town Square in Bellevue, where visitors to his apartment would find him seated in his favorite chair between stacks of books. He enjoyed frequent Costco runs, pancakes at IHOP, Cokes and people-watching at Dick's Drive-In, and beer and burgers at the Pumphouse with his kids.

David was predeceased by parents Margaret Bean Davis and David Morris Davis; brother, Richard Lane Davis, and sister, Barbara Davis Jaussi; first wife, Mara (although divorced they remained good friends); second wife, Jane; and son-in-law, Charles Corrigan. He is survived by his three children, Robin Davis Corrigan, David Huw Davis (Maryellen Johnson), and Alexa Davis; stepchildren, Lyn (Jerry) Grinstein and Don (Senia) Hussong; four grandchildren, one great grandchild, and numerous nieces, nephews and cousins. A private memorial service was held in Idaho. In keeping with his wishes, some of his ashes were interred in his family's plot in Teton and the rest were scattered on the family farm with its perpetual views across Teton Valley to the Lemhi Mountains, West Yellowstone and the Teton Range. We miss him greatly, but take comfort knowing that he's out there enjoying his next adventure.