Obituary of Lindrith E. Davies

Lindrith Davies of Jackson died on April 9, 2019, after a 15-month illness battle with esophageal cancer that had metastasized to his brain.. He leaves his wife, Lisa Cooley, and his children, Eli Morris and Francesca June. He is also survived by his father, Morris Davies of Georgetown Maryland and Austin, Texas, and sisters Cristina Davies of Albuquerque New Mexico, Heather Davies Bernard of Austin Texas and Jennifer Davies-Reazor of Newark, Delaware. His mother Janet Davies died in 2018. All his extended family and his friends are shocked and saddened by his loss; his intelligence, his humor, his wit and wisdom, his energy for work and play will be deeply missed by everyone who knew him. A Quaker memorial service and celebration of Lindy’s life will take place on May 19th at 2:00 pm, at the Jackson Community Center, Jackson, Maine. Lindy was born on October 9, 1957, and grew up in Georgetown, Maryland. He grew up along the shores of his beloved Sassafras River, exploring its curves and twists, its muddy and tree-lined shores. His childhood was full of those solitary ramblings as well as his love of archery, rocketry, and as he grew to adolescence, writing. Lindy was ecstatic when eventually, Cristy, Jenny and Heather came along. He loved being a big brother. He graduated from Kent County HIgh in 1974 and went to Denison College in Ohio. He grew to love the little town of Granville, Ohio and his proudest achievement in college was as producer and director of an off-campus production of a play by Ray Bradbury. After college, Lindy worked in the family auto parts business for a few years, a period of footloose uncertainty that he wrote about in his novel, “The Sassafras Crossing.” He took the opportunity to work for a tree surgery crew in the mid-80s where he met Mike Curtis, a tree surgeon and advocate of the economic ideas of Henry George. This encounter grew into a friendship that changed his direction and his life. After a catastrophic fall from a tree in 1986, he quit the tree crew and returned to school for a masters in education. When George Collins, director of the Philadelphia Henry George School took the position of director of the New York school, Lindy went with him as assistant director. Lindy loved living in New York. He joined the Brooklyn Society of Friends, and became a denizen of the Village Gate’s weekly open-mike jazz sessions. This brought him to another lifelong friend, Village Gate bartender Sonny Rivera. In January of 1994, the Village Gate closed for good; in February, he joined Echo, a small New York-based online community, where he met Lisa Cooley, the love of his life. He joined her as she sat on the floor in front of the fireplace at the Art Bar at one of Echo’s weekly gatherings; he always said he felt as though he had to give up one love -- the Village Gate -- so he could find Lisa. They married at Brooklyn Friends in March of 1995 and were happy for the 25 years they were together. Eli was born in 1997 and Francie in 2000. He was hopelessly dedicated to his children. Not making enough money to live comfortably in NYC, knowing that would have to put the kids in daycare at 6 weeks old, they took Lisa’s parents up on the offer of a house site on their land in central Maine, pulled up stakes and moved north when Eli was 3 months old. The Henry George Institute, a non-profit that was in Lindy’s care since the death of its founder, Bob Clancy, in 1994, moved to Maine with the family and Lindy spent the next 22 years building it as an educational organization committed to teaching political economics to “regular people.” Lindy was a worker. He built his family a house, managed the Institute, and cared for Lisa and his kids. He was in constant motion, moving from one project to the next with energy. Very ambitious for the Institute, he produced the quarterly Georgist Journal, administered the worldwide correspondence lessons, created online courses, and maintained multiple websites dedicated to Henry George. He became involved in studying the property tax policies of New York City and spent countless hours poring over its assessment database. At the same time, he maintained the house he built for his family, helped care for Lisa’s aging parents, spent time with his kids, and was the best husband anyone has ever seen. When Eli was seven, he and Lindy started fencing with the Downeast School of Fencing. This became a beloved pastime for both of them. Lindy was a proud papa when his son started, in his own words, “wiping the floor with his old man.” They fenced together for many years. He also accompanied Francie to violin lessons, dance classes (he wrote The Sassafras Crossing in Cappy’s Chowder House in Camden waiting for Francie to finish rehearsals) and recitals. His kids constantly amazed and delighted him. About 6 years ago he started work on a novel, which he finished 2 years later. The Sassafras Crossing is available on Amazon! He loved writing fiction and poetry, and a big regret of his life was not having time enough to dedicate to it. Had the cancer not happened, he would have dedicated part of his time to new ideas, as he and Lisa grew into their senior years side-by-side; Lisa working on plays, Lindy on fiction. (The next novel was to be a murder mystery set in a fictional version of the Village Gate.) But that’s not what fate had in store for them. Lindy was constantly doing, and his life was cut short when he had so much left to do. In his last months, Lindy’s only desire, besides seeing Lisa and the kids well cared-for, was seeing that the Institute would survive him. There is now a team of dedicated friends and Georgists working on carrying this work forward. Anyone who would like to see that Lindy’s life’s work continues can send donations to the Henry George Institute, 238 Hadley Mill Road, Jackson, ME 04921.