Clyde Davis dies; teacher, coach, civic leader was 64

Clyde Davis, a teacher, coach and civic leader in his former home of Wyandanch, died May 19 after a brief illness. He was 64.

Davis forged a second career as a photographer and videographer for several organizations, focusing on sports.

“He was a go-getter,” said one of his sisters, Patricia Pride of Baldwin. Throughout his adulthood, he was committed to his faith and to his church, the Upper Room Christian Center in Dix Hills, where he lived more recently.

Davis was born in the Bronx. His family moved first to Queens in 1960 and then to Babylon in 1965, where he graduated from Babylon High School in 1969. He then graduated from Albert Lea College in Minnesota.

For a while, Pride said her brother lived in Italy. He loved to travel, she said.

When he returned to Long Island and started a family, he became a special-education teacher at Western Suffolk BOCES. At the same time, he became a community leader in Wyandanch.

He directed the Wyandanch Police Athletic League and helped start the Wyandanch Civic Association. In that role, he led a fight in 1990 to keep more low-income housing from being built in Wyandanch, arguing instead the community needed more middle-income residents.

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Davis was also a leader in an effort to eradicate street prostitution in the community. For a time he published a newspaper, the Wyandanch Intellect.

His love of sports drove him to coach baseball and basketball in the community for many years and helped form the genesis of his next career as a photographer and videographer, Pride said.

“It was just a hobby” at first, she said, but he built it into something significant. He worked at major sporting events in the area, including at U.S. Open tennis matches in Queens and at Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center basketball games. He also published interviews with celebrities with an eye toward helping young black people make good decisions in life.

Pride said celebrities interviewed by her brother included Oprah Winfrey, Patti LaBelle, Spike Lee and numerous athletes.

He founded Fathers and Sons, an organization that mentors young men. He also served as director of video ministry at Upper Room Christian World Center.

In addition to his sister, survivors include his wife, Karen; father Ralph Davis and stepmother Deloris Davis of Babylon; sons Niles and Justin, both of Georgia; daughters Briana Davis of Dix Hills and Keena Davis of Deer Park; brothers Barry of North Carolina, Glenn of Georgia and Sean of Georgia; sister Peggy Davis of Huntington; and seven grandchildren.

Pride said the 300 people who came to her brother’s funeral services May 28 at the Upper Room Christian Center were a testament to his influence in the community and the church. Burial was in North Babylon Cemetery.