Jeffrey Davis

Jeffrey Davis was born into the loving family of John L. and Lula B. Davis on August 17, 1954.

Jeffrey came of age in Mansfield, Ohio, where he attended Mansfield Church of Christ with his family. He was known as an intellectually curious young man with a thirst for knowledge and a penchant for occasional rebellion. Jeffrey graduated from Malabar High School in 1972, and went on to earn an associate degree in applied science from North Central Technical College in 1977 and a bachelor of science in mechanical technology from Cleveland State University in 1984.

In the early 1980s, Jeffrey moved north to the Cleveland metropolitan area, where he co-led a successful catering and entertainment business, Golf Leaf Catering, and developed his engineering and technical drafting career. He started a family and kept his creative mind busy as a professional photographer and educator under the business name Roots-n-Culture.

Jeffrey's acute eye for composition, design, and materials enabled him to thrive in both technical and artistic realms. For the bulk of his engineering career, he designed and programmed medical diagnostic equipment like X-ray and CT scanners. In his longest-held positions, Jeffrey worked at Technicare/Johnson & Johnson in Solon, Ohio, and later, at Philips Healthcare/Picker International/Marconi Medical Systems. He reinvented himself in the early 2000s as a full-time, self-employed landscape garden designer.

Jeffrey served as president of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Photographic Society and an executive board member of the Northern Ohio Perennials Society. He was also a member of the Chagrin Valley Camera Club and the Cleveland Cultural Garden Federation, where was invited by the Mayor of Cleveland to contribute to the development of the African American Cultural Garden. For years, Jeffrey volunteered at the Garden Center of Greater Cleveland, where many of his colleagues became his clients.

Jeffrey's hobbies included, but were not limited to: gardening, horticulture, hiking, camping, birding, salsa and tango ballroom dancing, yoga, reading, film photography, cooking, poetry, crafts, concert-going, traveling, volunteering, and sharing pictures of his grandchildren.

Jeffrey was preceded in death by his father, John L. Davis; sister, Joan Davis, and brother, Maurice Davis. He is survived by his mother, Lula B. Davis; brother, Michael Davis Sr.; sisters, Mary Ann Williams and Darlene Williams; wife, Olga Davis; son, Omar (Emily) Davis; grandchildren Oliver and Evelyn Davis, and many other relatives and friends. With the care of those he touched, he is also survived by the scores of gardens he created and cultivated throughout his life.