Jonathan O. Davis Records

Jonathan Ogden Davis (JOD) was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 15, 1948 to E. Mott Davis (EMD) and Beth Odgen Davis. The family moved to Austin, Texas, in 1956 where E. Mott Davis became a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin. Jonathan Davis received a B.A. cum laude in anthropology and geological sciences from the University of Texas, Austin in 1969; an M.S. in geology from the University of Idaho in 1974; and a Ph.D. in geology, also from the University of Idaho, in 1977. His dissertation topic was "Quaternary Tephrochronology of Lake Lahontan, Nevada and California."

Davis was a geoarchaeologist and a research professor of geology at the Quaternary Sciences Center of the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, Nevada. Over the course of his career, Davis was also a taught geology at the University of Nevada, Reno; and was a geological/archaeological consultant for the United States Geological Survey, private research companies and several universities. He was a co-founder of the Nevada Archeological Survey, a collaborative organization of archaeologists who contracted to evaluate cultural sites. He published extensively and frequently presented professional papers on archaeological and geological investigations, tephrostratigraphy and tephrochronology, and other aspects of environmental history of the Great Basin region. He was one of the first researchers allowed into the Mount St. Helens area after that volcano erupted in May, 1980.

Davis was a member and officer in many professional organizations, including the Geological Society of America, American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Friends of the Pleistocene, Nevada Archaeological Association, Nevada Am-Arcs, Northwest Scientific Association, Society for American Archaeology, and the Society of Professional Archaeologists.

When Davis was a student at the University of Texas, Austin, he was a member of the U.T. Students for a Democratic Society and participated in the Vietnam March on Washington, D.C., in November, 1965. He was a member of the University Speleological Society and continued his interest in cave exploration in later years, doing considerable caving in Mexico.

Davis was a pilot of both small craft and gliders. He lived in Silver City, Nevada, with his second wife, Sandra L. Powers and served on the Lyon County Mining Ordinance panel, the Silver City Town Advisory Board, and the Silver City Junior Ski Program.

Davis was killed in an automobile accident on December 14, 1990 which was caused by a drunken driver. He was survived by his wife Sandra Powers, father and mother, and brother Hugh Davis.