Emlyn Barrasford Davies

Emlyn Barrasford (Barry) Davies, 88, passed from this life on Monday, July 20, 2015. He was born on February 23, 1927 in Minnedosa, Manitoba, Canada, the youngest of three boys of Enoch Christopher Davies and Ada Bullock Davies. Barry graduated with honors from the University of Manitoba in 1948 and earned both a Masters in Mathematics in 1951 and a PhD in Physics in 1953 from Pennsylvania State University.

Barry was proceeded in death by his parents as well as his two brothers, James Ivor Davies and George Christopher Davies. Barry is survived by his loving wife of 52 years, Lina D. Davies, as well as his daughter, Adrienne Schwenke and husband Mark Schwenke, his son, Owen Davies and wife Carol Davies and his son, Stuart Davies and his wife Dana Davies. He was also a proud grandfather of seven grandchildren, Jessica and Amanda Schwenke, Aeron and Briana Davies, and Bronwyn, Haydn and Gavyn Davies.

Barry served in the Corps of Engineers and Missile Battalion of the U.S. Army from 1955-1957.

Barry began his career as a geophysicist in the Research Department of the Gulf Oil Corporation in 1953. After his military service, he returned to Gulf Oil where he worked for Gulf and then Chevron Geosciences for a combined 35 years. In earning his PhD in Physics, Dr. Davies published works relating to the study of shock waves, and therefore, he was naturally involved in a number of early research projects for Gulf involving developing and improving seismic techniques. In 1968, Dr. Davies co-authored a paper on “Multichannel deconvolution of field recorded seismic data”, Geophysics, Vol. 33, No. 5. This paper was selected to appear in the silver anniversary issue of Geophysics published by the Society of Exploration Geologists.

He joined Chevron Geosciences in 1985 as an Assistant to the President where he was involved in merging Gulf’s upstream technology and technical staff into Chevron’s upstream companies. He retired from Chevron in 1988, holding the position of Vice President of Development and Implementation of Chevron Geoscience Company.

In 1989, along with a colleague of many years, he formed North American Geotechnical Company where he conducted research on developing methods for detecting scour, or erosion, around bridge foundations, which was sponsored by the National Science Foundation and conducted at the Allied Geophysical Lab at the University of Houston. From 2000-2002, Dr. Davies published a series of papers on this topic and was appointed an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Houston for his work.

Dr. Davies was a member of the Geophysical Society of Houston, the Society of Exploration Geophysicists, the European Association of Exploration Geophysicists, the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the American Physical Society and the Acoustical Society of America.

Barry was a loving husband, a devoted father, a caring grandfather, a spirited coach, a patient mentor and a concerned friend.

Funeral Services celebrating Barry’s life will be held on Sunday, July 26 at 1:00 PM at Ascension Episcopal Church at 2525 Seagler Rd, Houston, TX with the Reverend Todd Bryant officiating. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made in his name to Ascension Episcopal Church, Strake Jesuit College Preparatory or St. Agnes Academy.