Thomas Tyler Davis
Thomas Tyler Davis, 94, of Uniontown, Pa., passed away Sunday, August 27, 2006, in Pottstown, Pa. He was born to Ardella and Thomas Davis on January 17, 1912.
He graduated from Uniontown High School in 1929 and earned a degree in education at North Carolina College in Durham, North Carolina. He took graduate courses at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1935, he started his 41-year career with the Fayette County Board of Public Assistance as a home visitor. He remained with the agency and retired as Executive Director in 1977.
Tyler was a self-taught skier. He was 24 years old when he bought his first pair of skies and instruction book. He would sit through movies in order to see repeated newsreels on skiing.
Tyler was already an accomplished skier when he joined the infantry during World War II. When he came home at the end of the war, the quiet, soft-spoken soldier brought with him a Bronze Star, a Legion of Merit and the Italian Military Cross.
Before and after the war, Tyler taught First Aid for the Red Cross in Uniontown and applied his skills to injured skiers at Seven Springs Ski Resort. In 1958, he was asked to start a ski patrol at the resort. He held the patrol leader post for four years. The National Ski Patrol then asked him to serve as section chief, then as regional director, then as assistant division director and as the Eastern Division board representative to the organization’s national board of directors.
Tyler received every award the National Ski Patrol has. In 1995, the organization created a new honor, the Tyler Davis Eastern Division “Outstanding Instructor” award.
Tyler’s list of awards include: Life Time Pass #1 Seven Springs, Eastern Pa. Region Certificate of Appreciation, Division and National, Yellow Merit Star-National Charles Schobinger Award, Minnie Dole Award, Merit Award, Red Cross Certificate for Outstanding Service, Disaster Assessor, local, Puerto Rico, Saint Louis and others, and the YMCA Board of Directors.
Skiing took Tyler from ski areas in the Laurel Highlands to the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania, to New England and throughout the western United States. He also skied in Canada, Norway, Sweden, Austria, France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.
Shortly after he retired in 1977, he began a 16-month ski odyssey that took him, among other places, to Chili, Australia and New Zealand.
In May of 2002, Tyler was inducted into the Pennsylvania Ski and Winter Sports Museum Hall of Fame.
Tyler is survived by his nephew and niece, Phillip and Demetrius Weatherford of Columbia, Maryland and their children, Daniel and Alicia; a stepsister, Edith Naomi Adams of Roosevelt, New York; cousins: Edna Davis of Baltimore, Maryland and Odella D. Witcher of Virginia, a longtime friend, Ellie Jessum of Perkiomenville, Pa.; and a host of friends, skiing buddies and traveling companions.
Friends will be received in the MURIEL E. LANTZ FUNERAL HOME, 297 East Main Street, Uniontown, Pa. on Wednesday, September 6, 2006, at 5 p.m. when a funeral service will be held.
In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Pennsylvania Ski and Winter Sport Museum and Hall of Fame, 101 Joe Mountain Lane, Macungie, Pa., 18062.