‘He was always busy, always active’

Doug Davis never slowed down despite a barrage of health issues, any one of which would have stopped another man in his tracks.

“He was busy all the time and always active. He was just always going,” his daughter Melissa Zausch said. 

Davis, who died in April at the age of 49,  was diagnosed with leukemia three months after he married his wife Barb in 1991. When he was treated with a bone marrow transplant, doctors discovered he only had one functioning kidney.

Four years later, a circulatory disease cost him his arms and legs.

Then Davis, who lived on Highway I, contracted oral cancer, and once that was in remission, his kidney began to fail in 2012 as a side effect from medications he was taking.

In 2017, Barbara donated one of her kidneys to her husband.

For Melissa and her brother David, however, Davis was as active in their lives as any other father, being involved in their sports and school activities.

“We biked together; he coached me in soccer,” Zausch said. “If we wanted to take up bowling, he would figure out a way to bowl.”

Having a father with prosthetic arms and legs was normal to her, she said, having never known him any other way.

“He came home from the hospital after he lost his arms and legs on my first birthday,” she said. “That was his goal, to be home and out of the hospital on my first birthday. I didn’t know him any other way. That’s just the way he was.”

Her schoolmates would sometimes ask Zausch about what happened to her father.

“If anything, people thought he was kind of cool,” she said.

She said her father didn’t let his condition define him.

“He would often make jokes about the situation. He was very funny,” she said.

Davis had many hobbies. He was a downhill skier, hunter, snowmobiler, motorcyclist, raced remote control cars and was a Milwaukee Admirals hockey fan.

“He wasn’t the kind to lay on the couch and watch TV,” Zausch said.

He loved to camp with his wife and did so right up to the end, his daughter said.

Davis also took a leadership role in the community as a member of the Fredonia Lions Club and counseled other amputees.

But a recurrence of his mouth cancer last October struck the final blow.

“He was in so much pain and unable to eat or swallow,” his daughter said. “He fought long and hard.”

One hobby Davis developed later in life was building elaborate projects with Legos, many of them motorized.

Those projects will be on display with other mementos at a visitation and memorial service Saturday, June 27, at the Landt-Thiel American Legion Post 470 Hall in Saukville. 

Visitation will be from 10 to 11:45 a.m., followed by the memorial service. A reception will follow.

Donations to Lions Camp are requested and can be mailed to Barb Davis, N5199 Hwy. I, Saukville, WI 53080.