Former Sebastopol City Manager Mel Davis dies at 82

There can’t be many who know or care more about Sebastopol, or who do more for it, than Mel Davis did.

He lived there 50 years, which may not be all that unusual. But Davis also oversaw City Hall operations as city manager for nearly three decades and, as importantly, was key to the preservation of Sebastopol’s Luther Burbank Experiment Farm and the creation of the historical museum that occupies downtown’s former railroad depot.

Davis, seen often in recent years traversing his town on foot or on his bicycle, died June 7 at his home. He was 82.

“That guy should be called Mr. Sebastopol,” said Steve Stedman, also a stalwart of the Burbank farm and the Western Sonoma County Historical Society, which operates the farm and the museum.

“Everyone knew him,” Stedman said. “He knew about everything going on here. He really was a fixture in this small city.”

Davis was Sebastopol’s city manager from 1965 to 1993. It was on his watch that Elizabeth Burbank sold the 15 acres of land west of downtown Sebastopol on which her late husband, the world-renowned horticulturist, had experimented on plants and stayed in a simple cottage.

With the property slated for development more than 40 years ago with housing for low-income seniors, a campaign arose to preserve three acres of Burbank’s former farm and his cottage in perpetuity.

“Mel Davis saw the value in that three acres,” said Sebastopol’s Donna Diehl, a member of a pioneer family and of the Historical Society.

As city manager, Davis was instrumental to an arrangement that created the society in 1974 and led to it becoming responsible for maintaining the city-owned Luther Burbank Experiment Farm that complements the adjacent Burbank Heights & Orchard senior apartments.

Davis is credited also with leading Sebastopol through tough financial times and overseeing important upgrades to the city’s water and sewer systems and network of parking lots. After he retired as city manager 23 years ago, he continued to serve Sebastopol and Sonoma County as a trusty, engaged volunteer with organizations that included the Historical Society, the Rotary Club, the Council on Aging, Catholic Charities and the Food for Thought food bank. He organized a writing club and arranged for it to meet at the Luther Burbank cottage.

Just last week, the Historical Society honored several people with Lifetime Achievement awards. Davis was to have received one.

“He did so much for Sebastopol,” said the Society’s Diehl. “And he was always so humble. He worked in the background. He never wanted any credit for anything he did.”

Melvin K. Davis was born in Spokane, Wash., in 1933. Needing to help his family get by, he partnered with his brother, Douglas, to deliver a huge newspaper route.

“Every month, they would win prizes (for new subscriptions)” from the newspaper, said his wife.

As a high school graduate, Davis enlisted in the U.S. Army and served two years, mostly in Germany. Afterward he resumed his education, earning an undergraduate degree in political science from Washington State University, then a master’s degree from UC Berkeley.

He began his career in municipal administration in Pacifica. He was working as assistant city manager when he met the former Emily Crawford at the credit union where she worked.

She remembers him coming in for a loan in 1965 and afterward the switchboard operator telling her, “That young man just asked me if you were married.”

Noted the former credit-union staffer, “We had our 50th wedding anniversary last October.”

She said the love of her life had been in declining health for about the past year when he died in his sleep at home on the morning of June 7.

Mel Davis is survived also by his children, Matthew Davis of Santa Rosa and Stephanie Jarvis of Watsonville, siblings Douglas Davis and Raymond Davis, both of the Seattle area, and Judy Jung of Redding, and five grandchildren.

A memorial service is at 2 p.m., July 6 at his church, the Community Church of Sebastopol.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and Chris.Smith@pressdemocrat.com.