Business reporter Michael Davis dies of cancer By JIM WASHINGTON, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 7, 2005
Last updated: 10:47 AM

Michael Davis, an award-winning business reporter at The Virginian-Pilot, died Tuesday night. He was 39. Davis felt ill while visiting his parents in Atlanta two weeks ago. Within days doctors told him he had abdominal cancer so advanced that there was nothing they could do. He died with his family around him.

“All we wanted was mercy, and that’s what we got,” said his mother, Rita Davis. “He didn’t hurt.”

He is survived by his mother and his father, William Davis; a sister, Julia Schreacke; and two brothers, Stephen and Matthew Davis.

Davis came to The Virginian-Pilot from his native Tennessee in 2000. Business editor Bill Choyke worked with Davis in Nashville, then followed him to Norfolk.

“He could do a darn good job on almost any story,” Choyke said Wednesday. “He was a good, solid reporter and a go-to guy. He was a pro. As an editor and as a friend, he was someone you could count on.”

Born in Chattanooga, Davis graduated from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1988.

He started his journalism career at The Knoxville Journal as a general assignment reporter, then worked as a business writer at The Chattanooga Times and The Tennessean in Nashville.

In 2001 he won a first-place award for business and financial writing from the Virginia Press Association for breaking news about a planned Ford assembly plant expansion six months before the company wanted to talk about it.

The judges said, “Even the most casual readers, no doubt, found themselves pulled into the stories by the level of detail.”

“He was a pit bull,” said Carl Fincke, The Virginian-Pilot’s investigations editor. Fincke was the newspaper’s business editor when he hired Davis. “In that story he took us into the Ford plant in a way no one ever had.”

The Pilot’s managing editor, Denis Finley, said of Davis, “Mike was quick, irreverent and a darn good journalist. Our readers and our newsroom will miss him.”

Some of Davis’s recent memorable stories included the death of the tobacco auction, tips for surviving an office Christmas party and, in his final story, examining people of retirement age who continue working to hold on to their benefits.

“His last story was one of his best,” Choyke said.

Davis covered manufacturing and workplace issues. He worked closely with Jerry Hostetter, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications for Smithfield Foods Inc.

“Mike Davis was the best reporter who covered Smithfield on a regular basis,’’ Hostetter said in an e-mail Wednesday. “He also happened to be the nicest. Mike had it all: he was bright, thorough, fair and pleasant. I will greatly miss working with him.’’

Davis also wrote about the auto industry.

“He loved things that move,” Choyke said. “On cars and trucks he wrote with credibility and authority.”

Davis drove a Mazda Miata and a Ford Mustang, both convertibles, and recently sold his motorcycle. In a quest to go even faster, he took flying lessons.

He was avidly interested in antique and unique timepieces and had a collection of watches. Twice a month for three years he volunteered to read The Virginian-Pilot over a closed-circuit radio station for the blind.

A dog lover, Davis had not owned a pet since his beloved cocker spaniel, Cinnamon, died years ago.

“He was afraid it would break his heart again,” Rita Davis said.

Davis was always creative, his mother said, and loved to write stories. He had a ferocious curiosity that served him well as a journalist.

“He was one of the kindest, most perceptive and most intelligent people I’ve ever met,” she said. “There was nothing I couldn’t call and ask him about that he didn’t know. He had a thirst for knowledge.”

To his co-workers, Davis’s wry humor was a welcome relief from deadline pressure.

“Mike could lighten up any situation with his wonderfully irreverent comments, most of which we can’t print in the newspaper,” said deputy managing editor Alecia Swasy.

At the end of his quips he would usually add a droll, “It really is a wonder I’m not in management.”

“We’ll miss his humor, spirit and friendship,” Swasy said.

Reach Jim Washington at (757) 446-2536 or jim.washington@pilotonline.com.