Clarence H. Davis, Korean War veteran, retired teacher, and entrepreneur, has died at 95

Clarence H. Davis, 95, formerly of Camden, Korean War veteran, tireless veterans advocate, retired industrial arts teacher at Camden’s old Morgan Village Middle School and Woodrow Wilson High School, business and property owner, and mentor, died Wednesday, Feb. 12, of age-associated decline at his home in Voorhees.

Drafted into the Army in August 1951, Mr. Davis served 15 months in Korea with the 625th Field Artillery Battalion, 40th Infantry Division. He was a gunner and truck driver, and fought in furious frontline battles at the Punchbowl, Heartbreak Ridge, and Kumwha Valley.

“I was on the front line the whole time,” Mr. Davis told The Inquirer in 2013. “The first time I got shelled, I thought: ‘Oh, good. I want some action.’ It was like John Wayne. It didn’t bother me.”

That changed later, he said, especially after one harrowing bombardment. “The only guy left standing,” he said, “was me.”

Mr. Davis rose to sergeant before his honorable discharge in 1953 and earned six medals, including the Army Commendation Medal and the Korean Service Medal with two bronze stars. The Center for Civic Leadership and Responsibility at Camden County College saluted him and other local Korean War veterans in a 2013 event to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the war, and the Department of Veterans Affairs recognized him as Veteran of the Day on Oct. 10, 2021.

He wrote an unpublished memoir about his combat experiences, and his son Gary created an animated video and comic book, Escape from Kumwha, that recounted some of his exploits. “Smoke, shrapnel, and dirt was flying all over the place as Eli drove number six section’s truck right through that mess,” he said in his memoir. “It was getting dark, and we had to go across some roads that were still in Chinese view. … It was the wildest truck ride I had ever had.”

“I’m like the Battleship New Jersey. I’m an antique.”

Integration was ongoing in the Army in the 1950s, and Mr. Davis, often the only Black soldier in the unit, endured racism and discrimination. But he was good at connecting. “He’ll talk your head off,” his wife, Eleanor, told The Inquirer in 2013. Mr. Davis said in 2021: “I liked country music and introduced it to a white guy from New York who told me about Billie Holiday.”

He retired as a shop teacher in 1996 and began speaking regularly about his wartime service at schools and events for the Korean War Veterans Association. He worried that Korea veterans would be forgotten and called it his “mission” to make their service known. “I’m going to keep going until they make me quit,” he said.

His talks featured photos, old letters, and snippets of his memoir. He was interviewed for the Cherry Hill Public Library’s oral history project about local veterans in 2015 and said in 2013 that such attention “keeps us going and brings back more memories. There’s no question that we feel more appreciated.”

In 2013, he visited the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington and said: “I cried the whole time I was there.”

» READ MORE: Clarence Davis still fits into the Army uniform he wore in Korea 60 years ago

He returned to Camden in 1953 and worked at first as an electronics technician at RCA. He refurbished his own house and was so good at industrial arts and teaching young people that he was hired as a shop teacher in 1972.

A former seventh grader at Morgan Village described him in a Facebook tribute as “stern but always fair.” He said: “Thanks for seeing the good in me because without men like you I could easily have become a statistic.”

Mr. Davis also owned two gas stations and several storefront properties in Camden. “He was a teacher and a leader,” said his son Dwayne.

Clarence Henry Davis was born Jan. 2, 1930, in Camden. One of 10 children, he dropped out of Camden High School his sophomore year and worked as an iceman before being drafted.

» READ MORE: Clarence Davis's memoir on the Korean War has been made into a comic book

He married Eleanor Lowe while on leave from the Army in 1951, and they stayed in touch through tender letters for the next 15 months. They had sons Gary, Kevin, Wendell, Dwayne, and Tyrone, and a daughter, Sharon.

They lived in Camden and Cherry Hill, and he moved recently to Voorhees. His wife died in 2020.

Mr. Davis enjoyed photography and made home movies when his children were young. He collected 30 classic cars and took memorable trips to Florida with his wife.

He was a role model and mentor to family, friends, and neighbors. “He was a very loving, caring person,” his son Dwayne said, “just a beautiful person.”

In addition to his children, Mr. Davis is survived by six grandchildren, two sisters, and other relatives. Two sisters and five brothers died earlier.

Visitation with the family is to be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 13, at Carl Miller Funeral Home, 831 Carl Miller Blvd., Camden, N.J. 08104, and from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday, March 14, at Christ Our Light Catholic Church, 402 N. Kings Highway, Cherry Hill, N.J. 08034. A funeral service is to follow Friday at 11.

Donations in his name may be made to Catholic Charities South Jersey, 1845 Haddon Ave., Camden, N.J. 08103.