Mary W. Davidson's Obituary
Mary W. Davidson, 101, a fifty-year resident of Annapolis, died on Thursday, September 18, 2025. She was predeceased by her husband, Bruce M. Davidson, former Academic Dean at the U.S. Naval Academy and retired Major General of the U.S. Air Force. She leaves behind their children: Mark C. Davidson (Dawn) of Mission, Texas, Diane M. Davidson (Peter Horvath) of Vienna, Virginia, and Mary A. Davidson of Ketchum, Idaho. She also leaves grandchildren Piers Horvath of Laurel, Maryland and Sabrina Horvath of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Mary was born in Bellefontaine, Ohio in 1924, the elder of two children born to Mary Gowans Wank and John Michael Wank. She graduated from Bellefontaine High School in 1942 ranked first in the state of Ohio on English tests.
A stipend from the WWII Cadet Nursing Corps enabled Mary to attend the University of Michigan School of Nursing where she graduated cum laude in 1946. She worked in the Neuropsychiatric Ward of the University Hospital for two years following graduation while continuing her education at the University of Michigan’s Literary School, winning an Avery Hopwood Award for creative writing.
She married Bruce M. Davidson on January 29, 1949. Over the course of their 75-year marriage, Bruce and Mary resided in Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii; Madison, Wisconsin; and Pullman, Washington before moving to Annapolis in 1971. They lived on Porter Road at the Naval Academy for fourteen years during Bruce’s tenure as Academic Dean before retiring to Great Meadows. An active member of the Annapolis community, Mary was president of the Naval Academy Women’s Club, on the board of the Naval Academy Garden Club, a member of the Chapel Guild, and both vice president and president of the Hammond-Harwood House Association. She and Bruce additionally supported many Annapolis non-profit groups, including the Annapolis Opera and Symphony and St. John’s College.
Mary will be remembered as lifelong learner. As a child, she spent countless hours at the Carnegie library in Bellefontaine, which established her love of literature. With her husband, Mary traveled widely, including with Oxford Study Tours, was a member of the Raleigh Tavern Society, and a faithful attendee of the Williamsburg Antiques Forum. Additional hobbies included floral arranging, needlepoint, and baking her family-favorite “K-Bars” and Davidson birthday cake.
Mary would often marvel at her many experiences, reflecting on the few opportunities she had coming from “a little railroad town” during the Great Depression. “God has been good to me,” she would say, “and I thank Him every night.”
No funeral service is planned. Bruce and Mary will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery at a date to be determined.
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