Alan Martin Davis

Alan Martin Davis, was born 28.12.1954 at the home of his parents, James and Estelle Davis, in End Street Albertville. He was the first son to the couple who had only had daughters at this point. They chose the Names Martin Alan and both agreed, however, en-route to what was then called (Births and Deaths) James realised that his son’s initials were MAD. At that very moment he swopped the names and decided that it would be Alan Martin Davis, but they continued to call him Martin, it was only at school going age, that the name Alan was enforced. Being the first boy in a home of 4 girls (his sisters Ellen, Ethne, (the late)Noreen and Carol Anne), one can only just imagine how special he was as a little boy to his sisters and parents. My gran would always say that he was never a problem child to her. Although she was a school teacher, she spent many nights augmenting her income as a dressmaker; he would stand next to her humming to the buzz of the sewing machine, as she sewed into the night

When his little brother Michael became deaf, his family had to leave Johannesburg to move to Cape Town to be near to the only facility that could accommodate coloured deaf children.  So when he got to school going age, he attended St. Augustines R.C Primary School (across the road to your left) where he forged friendships that have lasted to this day.  He moved on to South Peninsula High School where he flourished as a student.  It was also here that he met Zelda O’Ryan, a young lady part of the athletic squad, who by her own admission was a fairly lazy athlete and had come 2nd place at one of her races.  Her couch decided that her punishment would be to force her to come to training.  En-route to her first training session at Muizenberg she wondered who this “Prof” was every one made such a fuss about but was decidedly blasé about him.  Eventually he took her under his wing and trained her (or drilled as she put it) resulting in a first place once again.  Needless to say, a romance blossomed between the two.   The two were married in January of 77.  On 15.07.1980, they were blessed with their first baby Meagan, she was the light of his life.  On the 06.10.1983, Carl followed, what a pleasure because now he could name his son Carl, not only because of the great composer Carl Orff but for one of the greatest conductors, Carl Davis.  Meagan ( gave him, his only grandchild, Micah Angelique, born on 30.11.2011) He was very serious, but had a bit of mischief in him, so while we recently took a poll as to who in the family all have tattoos, I excluded myself forgetting that I was the first one to have a tattoo, a fullstop made on my right hand at the age of 6, with a pin dipped into an inkwell, thank you very much. He excelled at everything he attempted, there were no shortcuts for him. He was the first of his family to ever attend, The University of Cape Town, although he did not complete his studies there, he continued his studies with the Simon’s Town Naval base and achieved first place in the country for his trade test in the field of electronics.  He was never able to go underwater in the submarines, and this was an impediment to his career.  He sought out possibilities outside of the navy and was offered a job at South African Nylon Spinners where he worked for more than 25 years, training and later designing systems.  Zelda during this time was still married to him and everywhere she went with him, people would say “your husband is a brilliant man, the best electronics technician I know.  She also adds that he could fix problems in bed in his sleep, no really, his phone would ring and he’d answer give the person one or two instructions to try out and they would call back tell what ever happened, he would say “ok try this, and this”  and they’d ring back and say the problem is solved, thank you.  One of his colleagues had this to say about him:

Hi Andrea. Alan was always a quiet confident man who went about his work with the utmost attention to detail with the motto :"Do it right first time." He treated everyone with dignity and respect from his subordinates to management. He willingly shared his knowledge even if you were not electrically minded. He took his time explaining it till that person understood how to solve problems they experienced. He kept his personal life to himself - I only found out years later that you are family (on fb - not thru Alan). Once again my condolences & be strong in your faith , believing that God's will is ALWAYS best! At 45 he decided to resign from SANS and travelled to New Zealand, then Australia where he looked at the possibility to emigrate. The doors were open to him, however, when he’s children made it clear that he could go without them, he decided not to go. Life without his children would be meaningless. Martin was the most unselfish person I know, there seems to be general conscences among every person that I spoke to that above everything, Martin’s kindness and warmth was what stood out for them, was the most exceptional of his qualities. Someone said, A golden heart, I called him our go to guy, he would be the one you would come to in times of trouble. There was never a question, “when will you pay me back”. He gave and he gave and he gave, relentlessly. In his 50’s he passed his drivers test, although he did not drive he did it anyway. When I asked my mom if I could share some of her memories she said he would play for hours with a packet and potatoe and hum while toss the spud in and out of the packet. When I asked what else, she exclaimed, “ag he was just such a lekker boykie” We had a couple of fights him and I, but the one that sticks out the most is the day he yelled at me saying “stop putting me on a pedestal”. By you he meant his family. How could we not, he was our hero, our champion, our go to guy, our leader. I’d like to play a song for you, that so aptly describes my relationship to my uncle, he gave me the world, introduced me to fine music, fine dining and fine wine, he stimulated me intellectually. He thought that Barbara Streisand and Sophia Loren were the two most beautiful women in the world, this is Pappa Can you hear Me by Barbara Streisand. Thank you.