Commentary: Bobby Davis' Life Made Fayetteville A Better Place

For as long as I can remember, I've had a high respect for people who step to the front and ask their neighbors for authority to make decisions on their behalf, who embrace the opportunity for community leadership when most people are just busy trying to earn a paycheck and get home in time for dinner.

I may disagree with them politically, but anyone willing to devote themselves to public service in the interest of bettering their community deserves respect. Not everyone who seeks public office fits that description, but the good ones do.

It's not easy. One political figure told me it got easier to count people he considered true friends because with each passing year, decisions he had to make affected personal relationships.

I've lost count of the city council, quorum court, committee and community meetings I've covered in 26 years as a professional journalist, with 22 of those in Arkansas. I think I've seen every kind of political officeholder one can imagine.

There are the ones who speak eloquently about their reasons for a vote, and others who cannot articulate an explanation for their actions in a way understandable to anyone but themselves.

There are the candidates who have a general interest in making their communities better, and those with specific (sometimes hidden) agendas they hope to carry out while in office.

There are the ones who show up to meetings without reading even the agenda, and the ones who spend hours researching issues, visiting places and talking to people until they've exhausted the subject.

There are the ones you can trust and the ones who have proven you can't.

There are the ones who managed to get elected, but quickly find out the burdens of decision-making in the public spotlight are too much to withstand.

Occasionally, you run across a public official of the best kind -- no personal agendas except for a sincere desire to make the community the best it can be. One of the best examples among those I've covered was Bobby Davis, who served as a Fayetteville alderman, member of the Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission, and in multiple leadership positions within our church, Central United Methodist on Dickson Street.

Bobby died last week after a battle with cancer. He was 56.

It was my good fortune to get to know him beyond his public service, through Sunday school and other church activities. Bobby was a community and business leader who recognized his most important role was that of devoted husband and father.

From a journalistic perspective, he was a man of integrity I knew I could call just to talk through community issues. He didn't care whether I quoted him or not, but he was excellent at analyzing all aspects of issues and exploring them, whether they necessarily agreed with his perspective or not. When I impatiently just wanted a straight answer, Bobby would often answer in the form of a question, forcing me to think through a point to reach my own conclusion rather than just thrusting his own on me.

Bobby was a fine example of a man who worked hard to do well by his neighbors, who loved his wife and daughters dearly, who valued integrity and a genuine desire to help. He applied sound reasoning to decision-making on behalf of the city's residents for years, and while he was always prepared to reach a decision, he was also always prepared to listen to anyone's ideas for making that decision better.

From a personal perspective, I respected how he confidently lived for his family, his faith and his community. Ever since I learned of his illness, I had a sense that Bobby fought so hard against the cancer not because of fear about what's to come -- his faith in Christ had that settled -- but because he wanted to make the most of the life God had given him.

The last time I spoke with Bobby Davis was Dec. 24, a short while before he joined his family to light candles on the Advent wreath during a Christmas eve service at our church. Advent is a season of hope, as Christians mark the anticipation that preceded birth of the one who changed everything, a deliverer, a messiah. The wreath itself is a symbol of the Christian hope arising from the promise of life without end.

Bobby Davis knew where he was headed, but along the way, he did what he could to make life better for family, friends, neighbors and people he didn't even personally know but who made up a part of a community he loved.

I will miss the man and his leadership.

Commentary on 02/24/2014

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