Dr. Frank W. Davis Jr., a respected Baltimore cardiologist who managed to combine a private practice, research and teaching during his 50-year career, died Friday of complications from emphysema at his Owings Mills home. He was 85.
Dr. Davis, the son of an oral surgeon and a homemaker, was born and raised in Asheville, N.C.
After graduation from Edwards High School in Asheville, he earned his bachelor's and medical degrees from Duke University.
In 1946, he came to Baltimore to complete his medical internship and residency in cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Dr. Davis served in the Army from 1949 to 1951, where he was a cardiology consultant to the European Command.
After leaving the Army, Dr. Davis returned to Baltimore and resumed his career at Hopkins.
For the next 25 years, he conducted research in cardiac diagnosis and taught at the Hopkins School of Medicine, while also maintaining a private practice.
In addition to serving as chief resident of the Marburg Medical Clinic, Dr. Davis was a consulting cardiologist at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Union Memorial Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital.
Despite his busy private practice, Dr. Davis remained devoted to teaching and mentoring medical students, and for 25 years was the volunteer head of the cardiac clinic at the Hopkins medical school, said a son, Frank W. Davis III of Santa Barbara, Calif. "To teach and practice medicine was his life's calling," he said.
In 1974, Dr. Davis joined with Dr. Nicholas J. Fortuin in a cardiology practice that was located in a rowhouse at 11 E. Chase St., adjacent to the Belvedere Hotel.
In recent years, the practice relocated to Johns Hopkins at Green Spring Station in Brooklandville.
"His devotion to young people was absolutely unique. He never missed a round at the clinic," Dr. Fortuin said yesterday.
"He was a Hopkins devotee of the first order and highly esteemed in the community. He ran the cardiac clinic at the hospital for years on a pro bono basis," he said.
In recalling the beginning of their partnership, Dr. Fortuin described it as a "handshake relationship."
"He was very kind to me, helped me get started, and very graciously showed me the ropes," said Dr. Fortuin.
Dr. Davis was also known for his own individual style of dress, which leaned less toward the conservative and more toward the colorful.
