Obituaries

William "Bill" Nolen Davies

William "Bill" Nolen Davies, 67, passed away Sunday, Aug. 14, 2016, from complications of PLS, a rare form of ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) in Rhinebeck, N.Y. Bill worked at Reynolds Metals Co. as a young man before operating Davies Construction with his father. The two developed subdivisions in the Bryant School District. He returned to college and earned a teaching degree and returned to his alma mater Bauxite High School to teach Industrial Arts. He used his relationships in the construction industry to get apprenticeships, further education and employment for many of the young men and women of former Reynolds Metals Co. and Alcoa employees still in the Bauxite area. Bill was a proud Arkansan, loving everything from it's friendly, open people, the smell of good southern cooking as well as the landscapes of his mother's farm in Holly Gove, near the waterways of the rivers and lightly connected oxbow lakes of riverbeds of millennia past and the wilderness encompassing them. He was an avid outdoorsman & duck hunter, rarely seen without a champion retriever by his side always ready to retrieve a bird, newspaper or whatever they could get Bill to throw for them. He complained as he aged that he'd worn out a shoulder throwing sticks, balls, and retriever dummies for his dogs. He was active in the UKC Hunting Retriever Clubs, even taking a turn as President of local chapters. He was also active in the Arkansas Native Plant Society where volunteers and botany professors alike would hike throughout the rugged back roads and game trails of the Ouachita and Ozark mountains with photo studios strapped to their backs. They traveled the state to photograph native and rare wildflowers, some now also gone forever, caught only in images by dedicated people with a love of what is wild and beautiful. He was predeceased by his parents, James Davies Jr. and Jane Nolen Davies, of Alexander; and a sister, Elizabeth Harvey, of San Antonio, Texas. Bill is survived by two children, Kimberly D. Davies, and husband, Robert A Wilbarg, of Waccabuc, N.Y.; and William W. Davies, and granddaughter, Autumn Samantha Davies both of Colorado Springs, Colo.; a sister and brother in-law, Ann Davies Spence and Dr. Lawrence R. Spence of San Antonio,Texas; and a brother and sister in law, James and Marjorie Davies, of Houston, Texas. There will be a private ceremony at a later date. Memorials can be made to The ALS Association to help find a cure and provide comfort for others suffering from this disease. www.ALSA.org.

Published September 11, 2016

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