25 saint francis magazine | spring 2024 Photography by Steve Vorderman Tony Davis (BLS ’96) lived his life as an old-school salesman. When he believed in something—as he believed in the University of Saint Francis—he sold it and sold it and sold it until his audience bought in. Davis worked more than a dozen official years for then-Saint Francis College in the 1980s and 1990s, helping to usher in an era when athletics blossomed, the campus bloomed and the full university experience came to life. Davis, 73, who died on Nov. 24 after a long battle with cancer and other health issues, continued to pitch the virtues of Saint Francis long after he was on the payroll. “Saint Francis becomes a part of you,” he said in an interview three weeks before his death. Davis worked as alumni director, but also spent time in student life, athletics, development and just about every aspect of Saint Francis. Asked to name his favorite title, he said, simply, “Just Tony.” “We put up the first Homecoming tent, we had the first bonfire, all of those things,” Davis said. “To see what Saint Francis has now is incredible. There’s an old saying in the business: You squirt a lot of vinegar on a cucumber before it becomes a pickle. We did a lot of squirting.” Davis said he was proud of the strides made in bringing alumni back on campus. He recalled stretching a limited alumni budget to stage 40 events outside of Fort Wayne—“Twenty-nine cities, up and down highway 75, including Florida,” he said—to engage with alumni and promote Saint Francis. His team’s efforts received a national award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). Davis organized a wedding vows renewal service for alumni and an “adopt a student” program to help student needs, and he worked tirelessly to interact with local media to promote Saint Francis in all areas. Davis became close friends with the late Larry Westendorf, the softball coach whose name graces the field. The two shared a passion for Saint Francis and did everything they could to promote all aspects. Davis later became close friends with current softball coach Ryan Bolyn, who Davis said is “like a son to me.” “I’ve put my life in three places: Life before Saint Francis, life at Saint Francis—which is the most significant part of my life, shaping who I am—and life after Saint Francis,” Davis said. “Even my life after Saint Francis was shaped by my life at Saint Francis. Of everything I’ve ever done in my life, the most important stuff was right here at Saint Francis.” Reminiscing about his days at Saint Francis, Davis said, helped bring back into focus how much he valued the students and wanted to spur them to be the best they could be. “All I care about now is their successes in life,” Davis said. “We expected them to have four good years here and then 40 great years of life. I tried to look at those students back in their day and I saw them as the professionals they are now. They never disappointed me. I could go down a list of kids and see what they’ve done and not be surprised.” Davis struggled with cancer and Parkinson’s disease in his later years, noting that Parkinson’s had diminished what had been his recognizable, booming voice. But, as his friends would attest, he never stopped sharing stories or being a compassionate person. And he was still selling the merits of Saint Francis to the very end. “You can see the Franciscan values in every professor, every syllabus and in all the people on campus,” Davis said. “Those values aren’t just words.” Davis, a U.S. Army veteran who served as a medic during the Vietnam war, said he tried to carry the values he cultivated at Saint Francis with him wherever he went. He is survived by his wife Sally, children Heather, Barry and Russell, and grandchildren Harrison, Colin and Everly. “Life is about passing something forward,” he said. “Hopefully, I passed Saint Francis forward with patience, love, respect and dignity. That’s what matters.” “ Y O U C A N S E E T H E F R A N C I S C A N VA L U E S I N E V E R Y P RO F E S S O R, E V E RY S Y L L ABUS AND I N AL L T HE P E O P L E O N C A M P U S . T H O S E VA L U E S A R E N ’ T J U S T W O R D S . ” Tony Davis (BLS ’96)
