From the beginning, Manuel Davis, an amazing man, lived an extraordinary life. He began life in Germany as the child of Holocaust survivors before arriving at a young age in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
His mother, Marion Landers Davis, having escaped the Nazis, became deeply involved with the civil rights movement, so her son grew up in a home that housed Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy, James Baldwin, and others. The experience made an indelible impression on the values that Manuel lived by throughout his life.
A graduate from Earlham College in Indiana, he became a hospital administrator before launching a successful consultancy for hospital projects on the East Coast.
Manuel was an adventurer and an explorer in his travels and treks throughout the world. It was not only the challenge of the trail and the beauty of the landscapes that Manuel loved, but the peoples and cultures he encountered and embraced. He spent weeks with the Masai in Africa, lived with Berber friends in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and made many “hiking buddies” on trails in Machu Pichu, the Dolomites, the Himalayas, India, Chile, Patagonia and New Zealand. This past fall, he hiked the 500-mile Camino de Santiago in Spain. He and his wife enjoyed travels together throughout Europe and Asia.
An avid biker, Manuel loved music and dancing, but above all prized his friends and the good times he had with them. Manuel’s life ended on January 23 in a car accident near Bend, Oregon, where he and his wife moved from Moab in 2021. His memory and spirit will be cherished by his wife, E. J. Gore, and friends, especially those in Moab and Pacific Grove, California. His spirit will continue to hike the trails through the red rocks of Moab which he loved.
A celebration of his life will be held in Moab in August.
