Davis, Thurston Noble

Extract

Davis, Thurston Noble (12 October 1913–17 September 1986), Jesuit priest and editor of America, Jesuit priest and editor of America, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Noble T. Davis, a sales representative for the Saturday Evening Post, and Rose Mary Carey. As a child Davis moved from Kentucky to Georgia to Ohio as a result of his father’s occupation, finally settling in Bloomfield, New Jersey. At the age of fourteen Davis commuted from Bloomfield to the Jesuit military high school, Xavier, in lower Manhattan. After high school (1931) he entered the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), receiving a B.A. in philosophy from Georgetown University in 1937 and theological education at the Jesuits’ Woodstock College in Maryland between 1937 and 1942. He was ordained for the priesthood in 1942 and after two years of work in Jesuit educational institutions was sent to Harvard University where, studying under the classicist ...