Barbara S. Davis

Memorial services for Barbara Snell Davis, 86, of Mentor, will be at 11 AM on Monday, June 15, 2015 at Mentor United Methodist Church, 8600 Mentor Avenue, Mentor. The Rev. Kurt E. Landerholm will officiate at the service.

The family will receive friends from 2-4 PM on Sunday, June 14, 2015 at Davis-Babcock Funeral Home, 4154 Clark Avenue, Willoughby. Private burial will be in Mentor Cemetery.

Mrs. Davis passed away Thursday, June 11, 2015 at the Cleveland Clinic.

Born February 21, 1929 in Painesville, she was a lifelong Mentor resident.

She was a graduate of Mentor High School, and earned her Bachelor’s Degree at Kent State University where she majored in economics and public relations and her Master’s degree in education at Lake Erie College. An active member of Mentor United Methodist Church where she has served as trustee and on various committees through the years. She was a member and past president of Phi Delta Kappa and of Delta Kappa Gamma Sororities. She enjoyed traveling, writing, reading, knitting, playing bridge and spending time with her family.

An accomplished author, she has written many articles relating to education as well as two books, Who Says You Can’t Change the World and Roses to Retail: Growing up with Mentor. She has been honored to be listed in a Directory of Distinguished Americans, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, and Who’s Who in American Education.

Her many honors include induction into the Mentor High School Alumni Hall of Fame in 2002, and recognized as the Phi Delta Kappa Educator of the Year in 1997. She earned federal recognition by President George H. W. Bush in 1990 as Principal of a Blue Ribbon Elementary School. She was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Mentor Board of Education, and was honored to be a Martha Holden Jennings Scholar.

In her professional career, she served as director of publicity at Lake Erie College in Painesville from 1954-1959. In 1972 she became a teacher at Mentor Headlands Elementary School, where she taught grades 2 and 4, and in 1986 and was named Principal at the former Center Street Elementary School, where she was educated as a child. After retirement from Mentor Schools in 1997 she became an adjunct professor and field director at Lake Erie College.

Mrs. Davis is survived by her children, James Lee (Janice) Davis of Mentor; Beth Ann Davis (Peter Schnorf) of Westerville, and Polly Denning Spaeth of Chagrin Falls and grandchildren, Charlotte and James Davis, Jr. and Hannah and Samuel Spaeth. She also leaves her companion, Ralph Wouters.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Roy and Mabelle (Denning) Snell and sister, Marilyn Snell Daniels.

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages contributions to Mentor United Methodist Church, 8600 Mentor Avenue, Mentor, OH 44060.