Commentary
by Kevin L. Nichols
When God calls
one of His children back home, I often envision dropping
a pebble into a still pond to observe the ripples
that are created. Cal Deleanor Davis must have been
the equivalent of a boulder that was dropped from
a high altitude due to the size of the ripples caused
by his passing — ripples that will be felt
for quite some time.
Cal Davis was born on Nov. 4, 1940
in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Cal played
basketball at and graduated from Manual Arts High School.
Thereafter, he joined the Air Force and served his country
throughout the world.
When Cal returned, he finished
his education at Cal State Los Angeles, earning a degree
in accounting and becoming a member of Kappa Alpha Psi.
He married Judie Martin in 1965 and moved to Oakland
to join Wilfong-Morris & Company, one of the largest
minorityowned CPA firms in the country. After several
name changes of the firm, Cal eventually became a partner
of Morris-Davis & Chan, and earned a master’s
degree in financial planning from Golden Gate University.
Cal was an entrepreneur and visionary.
One of his most important accomplishments was the creation
of the Judie Davis Bone Marrow Drive. When Judie was
diagnosed with leukemia in 1983, Cal developed a drive
to encourage people of color to register as potential
donors in the National Marrow Donor Registry. Sadly,
Judie died in 1990, but Cal continued his mission by
relentlessly targeting African Americans across the country
to register. According to the family, the number of African
Americans registered went from 124 in 1989 to 383,000
in 2001. Based upon Cal’s efforts, there were roughly
2.9 million African American registrants in 2006.
Along
with Cal’s national accomplishments, he was a member
of the Berkeley Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi, the
Oakland Chapter of 100 Black Men Inc., and instrumental
in starting the San Francisco chapter of the National
Association of Black Accountants.
Cal is survived by
his loving wife, Linda Hicks Davis; his sister, Yvonne
Moore; sons Byron Davis, Marvin Davis and Lance Pruitt;
and daughters, Erica Davis and Dr. Eden-Renee Pruitt;
daughters-inlaw Kimberley Nichols Davis and Charlotte
Dimery Davis; son-inlaw Jesse L. Woodson III; and grandchildren
Micaela and Miles Davis, and Alexis, Jordan and Jay Woodson.
Services will be held on Thursday, April 17 at 11 a.m.
at St. Paul A.M.E Church in Berkeley.
Although we will
no longer physically have Cal’s charisma, warmth
and compassion, his presence will be felt each time we
are confronted with one of his ripples.
Kevin L. Nichols
is an author and the president/CEO of KLN Publishing,
located in San Francisco. For more information, visit
http://klnpublishingllc.blogspot.com/.
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