In Memoriam: Thomas Davis (1956–2025)

COURTESY KRISTI JONES, LIPSCOMB UNIVERSITY

I was devastated to learn of Tom Davis’s sudden passing last September. I will miss him enormously.

In the 1980s, Tom was among the very best of my doctoral students in archaeology at the University of Arizona. He was a superb teaching assistant; even during his time as a graduate student, his charismatic flair for presenting both himself and biblical archaeology marked him as a future leader in the field. My early hope was that Tom would go into New Testament archaeology—my only student to do so. His subsequent excavations at Kourion in Cyprus fulfilled that promise.

Tom’s early career in cultural resource management and contract archaeology in the United States proved his dedication to public service. Then, as Director of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (2003–2011), Tom demonstrated his great organizational and management skills in facilitating numerous archaeological projects, all the while continuing his own work at Kourion.

In 2011, Tom was hired to be a professor of archaeology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he flourished. When that department closed in 2020, he—along with colleague Steven Ortiz (also one of my former doctoral students)—moved to Lipscomb University,^a where I hoped that his mature years would produce the full promise of a critical New Testament archaeology still rooted in the biblical text. Alas, that was not to be.

Tom died tragically early; but his life was a blessing to us all. Let us celebrate that life, well lived and truly joyful.