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Obituaries » Wilbur John Davison

Wilbur John Davison

August 31, 1919 - August 24, 2017

MEMORIAL SERVICE
September 22, 2017
10:30 AM

Ankeny First United Methodist Church
206 SW Walnut Street
Ankeny, IA 50023
(515) 964-4249

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A Memorial Service for Wilbur J. Davison will be held this Friday, September 22, 2017, 10:30am at the Ankeny First United Methodist Church, 206 SW Walnut St, Ankeny, IA. Interment of the cremains will follow at Powers-Warren Cemetery near Runnells, Iowa. Afterwards family and friends are invited to gather at Smokey D’s BBQ, 5055 NW 2nd St, just off I-80 in Des Moines. I know he would be very pleased by your attendance and we would be honored to see you there.
Wilbur passed August 24th, just one week shy of his 98th birthday, with his daughters and son in law by his side at the Sunny View Care Center. Left to cherish his memory are daughters Carole (John/Mike) Martin of Des Moines, Beverly (Jim) Davison-Miller of Indian Valley, Idaho; brothers William Davison and Loren Davison of Boswell, Indiana; Grandsons Mike (Danette) Martin of Jackson, Mo. and Evan Miller of Des Moines; Great Grandchildren Tyler and Addison Martin, and Brielle, Zakk, and Wyatt Miller along with other nieces and nephews.
Wilbur was born August 31, 1919, to John and Arvilla Davison at their home on Capitol Ave in Des Moines. He was the second oldest of the five siblings. His family later moved to Avon, IA, where his mother invited the younger kid’s country school teacher, Doris Robinson, home for supper to meet her oldest son, Wilbur. Arvilla was a match maker and later Wilbur and Doris would be engaged while he was overseas in the military. Wilbur would be gone 3 years and 7 months overseas in Northern Africa and Italy serving in the Intelligence Corp intercepting German Code. By then the Davison family had moved to the Boswell, Indiana area and that is where Wilbur was honorably discharged from the army in 1945. Doris took the bus to Boswell to meet Wilbur where they were married August 17, 1945. Doris and Wilbur were married 68 years before Doris’ death at age 90 in 2013.
Wilbur went to work at the Des Moines John Deere Works on December 30, 1947, and retired 32 years later. Because of his job at John Deere they moved from Avon, IA, to Ankeny, Iowa, in 1949, and resided in Ankeny for the next 68 years. He was a member of the Albaugh-McGovern Post 42 in Ankeny for 32 years, past member of the Mid-Iowa Woodcarvers, Local UAW 450 Retirees, and a 67 year member of the Ankeny First United Methodist Church. His passions were his family, fishing and pheasant hunting, garage time to work on a car, making fishing lures, and later in life he became a woodcarver completing many treasured items like cardinals, favorite pets, his nativity scene, Santas, and many snowmen. He always loved cars. He dated everything in life by what car he owned. He usually had a garage where he would paint and fix up cars. When he sadly gave up his driver’s license in 2015 he said he’d been driving for 80 years! At age 90 he was on the first Honor Flight to Washington DC. At 95 he got his first smart phone and learned to answer text messages and show off family pictures. Doris and Wilbur traveled and enjoyed camping their way to Alaska with dear friends. They joined their fellow Signal Corp retirees on a 50th Anniversary Trip to Italy to revisit where they had been stationed during WWII.
After Doris died in 2013 he lived alone in their townhouse for a year before he suffered a broken hip. After rehab he moved into an assisted living apartment at Mill Pond and later moved to Suites of Ankeny where he made new friends. Even there he wanted his tools and still continued to help friends whether it was unsticking a zipper or grinding a bit on someone’s key that tended to stick. He was always looking for a project or trying to improve something.

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