John Byron Davis

Born 1922-08-08 Omaha, NE (USA)

Died 2018-11-26
Omaha, NE (USA)

Buried
Forest Lawn Cemetery, Omaha, NE (USA)

Member of the Davis family of Omaha, Nebraska, honored as the University of Nebraska's first "legacy" family with three generations of physicians as of 2002. John Byron Davis was a well-known surgeon in Omaha, Nebraska who retired in 1985 and wrote two books. Serving with the Navy in the Pacific in World War II, Davis rose to command an LST and was even, in that capacity, very briefly, as the result of a postwar foul-up, a convoy commander. He described his Navy experiences in The War Letters: A Young WWII Naval Officer Writes Home. Davis grew up in the Nebraska Sandhills. His historical novel about Cody, Nebraska gave the town its motto "Too Tough to Die."

Places Lived

Omaha, NE
Asheville, NC
New Haven, CT
Chicago, IL
Palm Desert, CA

Author Of

Biography
Fiction

Keywords

World War II; War Letters; War Memoirs; Nebraska Sandhills--Fiction; Medicine and Physicians

Education

Yale University, New Haven, CT, 1947
Ph.D. in Medicine, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, 1951

Occupation

Doctor
Surgeon
Writer
Business Owner

Places Worked

University of Nebraska Medical College, Omaha, NE
Immanuel Hospital, Omaha, NE
Bishop Clarkson Memorial Hospital, Omaha, NE
Children's Memorial Hospital, Omaha, NE
Methodist Hospital, Omaha, NE

Honors

Liaison Fellow for the State of Nebraska Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons from 1966 to 1982

Associations

Nebraska State Historical Society, Trustee
American College of Surgeons, Fellow
Western Surgical Society, Member
American Thyroid Association
American Geriatrics Society
New York Academy of Sciences
Society for Surgery Alimentary Tract
Society of Head and Neck Surgeons
Pan American Medical Association
Warren H. Cole Surgical Society
Omaha Midwest Clinical Society
Omaha Medical Society
Douglas County Medical Society of Nebraska

Bibliography

Too Tough to Die. 1987.
The War Letters: A Young WWII Naval Officer Writes Home. 1990.
contributor of 33 scientific articles to numerous professional journals

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