DAVIS, SYLVESTER SANFORD, JR. (24 June 1925-17 Aug. 1989), an obstetrician, gynecologist and surgeon, directed the division of gynecology and reproductive health at ST. LUKE'S MEDICAL CENTER (1958-82) and participated in the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE (NAACP) for over 40 years. He served as president of the Cleveland chapter (1981-83) and on the national board, and testified at Senate subcommittee hearings on health reform (1979). Davis was born in Cleveland to teacher Amaza Dewey Weaver Davis and postal clerk Sylvester Sanford Davis. He attended local public schools, graduating from East High School. As a youth he worked as a page at CLEVELAND PUBLIC LIBRARY and maintained a large route for the CLEVELAND CALL & POST. WORLD WAR II interupted his studies at Adelbert College of Western Reserve University (WRU, see CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY, CWRU); he served in the Army Air Corps (1943-46). Upon discharge as first lieutenant, Davis finished his degree (1949) at WRU and graduated from medical school at Howard University in Washington, DC (1953). After interning at City Hospital of Cleveland (later MetroHealth Medical Center), he entered private practice in 1958 in Cleveland.
Davis was a clinical instructor at the CWRU School of Medicine (1958-89). He belonged to the ACADEMY OF MEDICINE of Cleveland, the Cleveland Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the CUYAHOGA COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY, the CLEVELAND MEDICAL READING CLUB, among numerous other medical associations.
Davis married three times: Beverly Ann Yancey in 1953, they divorced in 1970; Estelle Jasper on 29 May 1971, they were divorced in 1977; and on 26 Mar. 1983, he married Muriel Johnson. He had 3 sons, Sylvester III, Carl and Kerrick. Davis, who lived in SHAKER HEIGHTS, belonged to the ANTIOCH BAPTIST CHURCH and was buried in Highland Park Cemetery.