Edward Roderick Davies

Edward Roderick Davies
Mayor of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
In office   – c. 1960s
Personal details
Born	June 2, 1915 Caerau, Bridgend, Wales, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Died	September 8, 1992 (Age 77) Stuart, Martin County, Florida
Spouse(s)	Lois (Pottinger) Davies
Children	Daughter: Ann (Davies) Romney Sons: Jim Davies, Rod Davies[1]
Residence	Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Later, Stuart, Martin County, Florida
Alma mater	General Motors Institute of Technology
Religion	None
Positions	Co-founder, Jered Industries, 1946

Edward Roderick Davies (June 2, 1915 – September 8, 1992) was a self-made industrialist.

Biography

He was born on June 2, 1915 into a Welsh coal mining family. In 1929 he immigrated to the United States with his father David Davies who had black lung disease and had been injured in a mining accident. David worked at a Ford plant and paid for his wife, Annie Davies, and son, Edward, to come thereafter. In 1938, Edward graduated from General Motors Institute of Technology in 1938 with a degree in engineering and, after serving a stint in the U.S. Naval Engineering corps, in 1946 Davies co-founded a maker of heavy equipment for marine use, Jered Industries. Some sources have suggested that Jered helped to engineer the landing crafts used for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, though this is unlikely as Jered was not founded until well after D-Day.^[2][2][3] Davies—who had also worked with the NASA's Gemini space program^[4] and served as the mayor of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan—was the father of Ann Romney.^[5]

He died on September 8, 1992.

Jered

Jered was sold to the British engineering firm Vickers in 1980, at Davies' retirement. (The division became an independent entity again in 1997 and was acquired in 2005 by PaR Systems.^[6])

Religious views

Davies rejected religion and was an avowed atheist. He was known to call organized religion "hogwash" and "drudgery". However, 11 months after his death, he was baptized in accord with Mormon tradition. Mormonism is the religion of his children, including his daughter Ann Romney and son-in-law, 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Despite Davies being an avowed atheist to his death, Mitt and Ann Romney performed the ritual afterwards.^[7]

On February 3, 2012, he was ceremonially "un-baptised" by American comedian Bill Maher, in order to make a point about atheism (the rejection or suspension of belief in any gods) not being a religion.^[8]

Patents

Davies' U.S. patents include:^{[citation needed]}

• an automated window washing for high-rises
• yacht fin stabilizers
• a high performance golf cart
• a scuba spear gun
• a lawn sprinkler

References