Barrie Davies FRSC

Barrie Linton Davies, aged 81, of Matthews NC, died peacefully at home on October 24, 2016 after an 11 month battle with pancreatic cancer.  

Born in Bristol, England, to parents Thomas and Ada Davies, Barrie began a lifelong interest in chemistry at an early age, earning the ire of both his father for burning a hole in a concrete garden path with homemade gunpowder and his mother for ruining numerous articles of clothing with acid burns resulting from making gun cotton from nitric acid. Having gained a sobering appreciation of the power of chemistry he decided to complete technical training in the field and proudly became a Fellow of Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC). While at school he worked as a chemist at Cooke and Barr Public Analysts in Bristol and at Robertson's Wax Paper Co before accepting a position at the University of Bristol's Long Ashton Research Station working on fermentation processes. Between Long Ashton and his next career move he completed 2 years of service in Britain's Royal Air Force as a radar technician at RAF Yatesbury.  Parallel to his work as a chemist he was an avid cyclist, both touring the country and time trialing with the Severn Road Club, initially with his childhood friend Hedley and later with his future wife Diana whom he met cycling. Moving from England to South Wales in 1961, he joined British Nylon Spinners, to work for 13 years with what became Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).  In 1973 he and Diana moved their family to Charlotte, North Carolina for an interim assignment with an ICI Joint venture, Fiber Industries Inc., that resulted, in 1981, in the family's emigration to the United States.  

He worked the remainder of his career in a wide variety of technical roles at Hoechst Celanese.  Passionately inquisitive and inventive, Barrie had 25 patents, was named a Hoechst Senior Research Fellow in 1995, and continued to consult after his 1997 retirement.    Cycling was a lifelong passion that wove a thread throughout Barrie and his family's life, along with gardening, family, love of animals and generally just figuring out "how things work." 

Following a private funeral, a memorial service celebrating Barrie's life was held at 12:30 pm, December 3, 2016 at Lake Pointe Hall, Colonel Francis Beatty Park, 4330 Weddington Rd., Matthews, NC, 28105.