Harvey M. Davis, Jr. ’68 died on February 14, 2025, in Auburn, Maine.
(The following was provided by the Maine Sunday Telegram on May 18, 2025:)
Harvey M. Davis, Jr. ’68
Harvey MacLean Davis, a lover of music, film, and imported sports cars, passed away peacefully on February 14, 2025, at Andwell Hospice House in Auburn. His death followed a series of medical setbacks since early 2023, but was nonetheless sudden, Lymphoma the ultimate cause of his passing.
“Harv” was born to Arnold and Virginia (Cushing) Davis in Concord, NH, on July 3, 1946. He was a 1964 graduate of Concord (NH) High School, where he participated in student government and musical/choral groups.
In the autumn of that year, Harv moved to Brunswick as a freshman student at Bowdoin College. Following graduation in 1968, he married Carolyn Bond of Old Saybrook, CT, at the Abbey Chapel in Hadley, MA. They met on a blind date in 1964 while she was in her first year at Mount Holyoke College. He was initially employed as an elementary school teacher in Manchester, NH, but his interest in music as a performer evolved into a long life, loving recorded and live music, promoting and selling it as a professional appreciator, collector and most notably – “record store music guru.”
In 1975, Harv returned to Brunswick with his growing family, now including their young son (to be joined by a daughter in 1977), to open his own business, the record store “Manassas, Ltd.” Through 1987, “Manassas” served the Central and Mid-Coast Maine community as a vital source for new, imported and rare recorded music and video. Manassas Ltd. was a regular advertiser with WBLM Radio, known throughout the region for their co-sponsored Friday “Price Massacre” promotion and then-ubiquitous ads. In 1985, Manassas Ltd. expanded with a second location on Congress Street. The small chain closed due to changes in the industry.
Following Manassas, Harv remained in music retail and expanded into photography, a long-time hobby of his. He served customers and friends at the DeOrsey’s Music chain, Bowdoin Camera Exchange and Play It Again Music (Falmouth) stores, managing national retail chains in the Lewiston/Auburn area and then the box office at The State Theatre. In his later years, he worked in telephone customer service at area call centers. He retired in 2012.
Harvey is survived by his son, Ian MacLean Davis of Baltimore, Md; his daughter, Laura (Davis) Drown, son-in-law, Ty Drown and granddaughters, Lyla and Lennon of Arundel; his sister, Leila and nephew, Sage in California; his sister, Verna in Florida; and his wife, Carolyn, a fifty-year resident of Lisbon Falls and a retired Catholic Charities program director.
His death was preceded by his parents; and a brother, Alan.