YOUR STORY MATTERS HERE: Burl & Barbara Davis

[Since publishing this story, both Burl and Barbara have gone home to be with the Lord. We share their story in loving memory of them.] Burl and Barbara Davis’s 68-year love story has produced four children, eight grandchildren, two generations of Methodist ministers, and taken them around the world.

The couple met in 1951 in the Wesley Foundation (a Methodist youth program) at the Illinois State Normal University in Normal, Illinois, when Burl was just 16 years old and Barbara only slightly older. They were both part of a “deputation team” charged with doing a play depicting the miracle of Jesus healing a blind boy.

“I tried out for the part of the boy’s father,” Burl explained. “Barbara said I should be the high priest (the bad guy), so I ended up doing it, so I married her.”

Burl, originally from St. Louis, Missouri, moved to Illinois when he was twelve. Growing up before the era of gifted and talented programs, Burl’s teachers dealt with his academic prowess by repeatedly having him skip grades at school. He graduated high school at 15 and began college at Normal that fall. Although Burl was raised Southern Missionary Baptist, he and Barbara spent most of their lives in the United Methodist Church.

Barbara was raised in an English-German farming family with strong Methodist roots. Her father and brothers farmed grain and did custom work with bulldozers and heavy equipment. Her parents were leaders in the community and in the church.

Burl dropped out of college for financial reasons and married Barbara in 1954. Burl worked in the laboratory at a Shell Oil refinery. Surrounded by scientists with Ph.D. degrees, Burl said working in the lab was like attending a graduate school program. He felt strong support from his colleagues and took college courses at night to complete his undergraduate degree at Southern Illinois University. He finished work on a Master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Wyoming while managing a test lab in the School of Engineering.

In 1964, Burl visited coal facilities at Pittsburgh and fell in love with the town; in 1966, the Davises moved to Pittsburgh for Burl’s job. He worked first at Koppers Company and then at Gulf Oil.

Trained as a chemist who specialized in coal technology, Burl and some of his coworkers responded to the demise of Gulf Oil by forming a new company working in coal technology. Burl continued there until, he said, “I reached the age of ‘statutory senility.’ After my retirement, I worked as a consultant for the coal industry until 2019.”

Barbara completed her undergraduate work in Home Economics at the University of Wyoming and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, earning her degree in 1971. She worked as a home economics teacher in Lower Borough (north of New Kensington) for 27 years.

“She loved working with kids, teaching them cooking and sewing,” Burl said. In addition to the couple’s adventures together, Barbara traveled extensively on her own.

“In 1997, Barbara spent three months in Japan. She was sent to create a home economics curriculum for Japanese schools, and she met with politicians and educators,” Burl explained. Barbara also journeyed to the British Isles as part of her professional development and relished the opportunity to see another part of the world.

Burl’s career involved significant travel. In 1995, once their children were grown, Barbara traveled with him when possible. Between 2008 and 2014, Burl worked for an Australian company and he and Barbara took several extended trips to Brisbane, Queensland. They also explored closer to home.

“Our empty nest was a 35-foot Pace Arrow motorhome,” Burl said. Burl and Barbara logged 65,000 miles visiting the Canadian Maritimes, Florida, Alaska, and much of the contiguous Western United States between 2000 and 2010. They have vacationed with their family on cruises to Alaska, the Caribbean, and the Holy Land.

Barbara traveled to Russia three times with the Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church, Burl said.

“Her role was to be the lead teacher of the mission team. From 2001 – 2004, they taught at summer camps in Russia. They were supposed to teach about the Bible, but were not allowed to evangelize,” Burl said. “She taught Bible lessons to more than 1,000 Russian children during that time using Russian Bibles and storybooks.”

“It was a life-changing experience for her,” Burl said. “She grew up on a farm, but this was a rural community inside the Arctic Circle where people ran herds of reindeer. There were no flush toilets—just a hole in the ground with two bricks to stand on. These people were raised in a Communist system and didn’t have the same concept of the value of money. They bought things because they were available—not necessarily because they needed them.”

“Her approach was that, by sharing the Bible, they planted a seed, and now it just needs to grow,” Burl explained.

Barbara was not the only one serving the church in the Davis family.

“We say that we are a fully pastor-ized family!” joked Burl. One of Barbara and Burl’s sons is a United Methodist pastor living in Maine—who happens to be married to another United Methodist minister. While that couple is now retired, their own son and daughter-in-law (Burl and Barbara’s grandson and his wife) are also UMC ministers.

“Our kids grew up over 20 years in the Monroeville United Methodist Church,” Burl explained. “Then we moved and spent 30 years at Oakmont United Methodist Church.” Both Barbara and Burl are registered lay leaders in the UMC, which means they can present sermons at other Methodist churches.

“Barbara was more in demand than I was!” Burl said. “She gave sermons a couple of times in Australia” where the couple attended the United Church—a gathering of UMC, Presbyterian, and other Christian believers where the Davises found a warm and friendly church family.

Burl and Barbara found Dutilh Church three years ago when they moved to Sherwood Oaks Retirement Community in Cranberry Township. They chose Sherwood Oaks to help them navigate Barbara’s journey with Alzheimer’s. They were already familiar with Dutilh Church because of their close friendship with John (a former pastor at Dutilh and Oakmont) and Evie McLeister. They had a moment of serendipity when they realized that Pastor Jim Gascoine, a good friend of their son Mike, was at Dutilh as well.

“We found Dutilh to be a loving, active congregation. There is a real, living faith in this congregation. It became home for us very fast,” Burl said.

The support of the Dutilh family has helped support Burl through some of the difficulties of his wife’s illness. “Tom and Jim visit regularly even though she doesn’t know who they are,” Burl said. “People here ask about Barbara; they care about her. She was active here for about a year before she started showing real symptoms of Alzheimer’s and moved to Oak Grove, the Sherwood Oaks Alzheimer’s facility.”

“I wouldn’t wish Alzheimer’s on anybody,” Burl said. “Barbara gets frightened and confused and has trouble now adapting to change. Recently I asked her if she knew who I was…she was concerned about finding good sitters for our kids.” Burl makes it a priority to have lunch with Barbara on a regular basis, as that tends to be the best time of day for her.

Burl is heartened that people care about Barbara, who offered compassion and care to others for years.

“Barbara was a person who could sense a need. She saw needs and did what she could to help. She had a student whose parents were separated and she was living with her grandmother; it was not a good situation,” Burl said. “Barbara brought her into our house to live for a year. She was very sensitive to people, and she had a strong sense of responsibility.”

Burl shared that during one of her trips to Russia, a translator asked Barbara why she would spend her own money to travel as a missionary. “Barbara told her, ‘It’s out of gratitude for the gifts that God gives us.’”

Burl and Barbara celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary last September and are expecting their fifth great-grandchild this summer.

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If you or someone you know in the Dutilh family has an interesting story or profession, send us your ideas! We would love to help tell the story. Email: communications@dutilhumc.org.