Mackenzie Leo Davis

Mackenzie Leo Davis, age 83, passed away peacefully at Burcham Hills Rehabilitation Center on July 13, 2025. Mackenzie was born August 13, 1941, in Brooklyn, NY, to Thomas and Helen Frantiska Davis (nee Odlozil). As a high school student in Metuchen, NJ, Mack excelled in track and cross country. He attended Virginia Military Institute for two years before joining the Army ROTC program at University of Illinois. While at U of I, Mack met and married Elaine, his beloved wife of 63 years.

After graduating with a PhD in Civil Engineering, he served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps and conducted air pollution surveys at Army ammunition plants. He then spent several years as Branch Chief for U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory in Illinois.

However, his passion was for teaching, and in 1973, Mack (Dr. D, to his students) accepted a position as an Environmental Engineering professor at Michigan State University. Dr. D. worked relentlessly, not only finding the best means to teach his students, but also in supporting them in their growth into engineers and adults.

He was passionate (crazy) about developing and sustaining an award-winning concrete canoe team. He mentored them in developing a concrete canoe that would float, coached them into competitive paddlers, and won awards for several years in the American Society of Civil Engineers National Concrete Canoe competition, including Grand Champion in 1990. From 1993-1997, he co-mentored the team for the Waste Management Education and Research Competition, placing in the top four every year, with two first place wins.

Dr. Davis was active in many professional engineering societies, including ASCE, AWMA, and ACS, and he passionately wrote many Environmental Engineering textbooks which are still in print, in use, and available online. His books have been translated into Chinese, Spanish, and Korean and his contribution to the field is worldwide.

During his retirement, Mack was chairperson of the Greater Lansing CWS CROP walk for many years, routinely raising substantial funds to fight hunger locally and world-wide.

Through his books, teaching, and support of student activities, Mack has touched tens of thousands of lives and will be well remembered and loved.

Mackenzie is survived by his wife, Elaine of Okemos, MI; daughter, Laura (John) Safran of Wappingers Falls, NY; grandsons Aaron Safran of Leesburg, VA and Zachary Safran of Endicott, NY; and brother Robert Davis of Peoria, AZ.

Family and friends will gather at Okemos Presbyterian Church, 2258 Bennett Rd, Okemos, MI (or view online via private link) on Sunday July 27th. Visitation begins at 1:00pm; funeral service at 2:00pm followed by light refreshments. Burial will be at East Lawn Memorial Gardens, 2400 Bennett Rd Okemos on Monday, July 28th at 11am.

In lieu of flowers, please help support the two organizations which were of huge importance to Mack:

Michigan State University -- Mackenzie L. Davis Student Activity Discretionary Endowment Fund. https://give.msu.edu/?sid=20946

CWS-CROP – local and worldwide support for hunger relief, Greater Lansing Walk, team “In Mack’s Footsteps” https://events.crophungerwalk.org/crophungerwalks/team/in-macks-footsteps