For 26 years, Joe Davis has been a one-man support system for people who work daily with death.<\/p>\n
He was a volunteer chaplain in the county Medical Examiner\u2019s Office, providing help for staffers and grieving families.<\/p>\n
Over the years, the position grew from two days a week to a full-time presence. It became a calling. He comforted those who needed it. He prayed with those who wanted it.<\/p>\n
He also picked up a rather unexpected duty. He uses saws and scalpels to remove brains to be donated for science after being trained by a pathologist two decades ago. By his count, he\u2019s removed around 800 of them.<\/p>\n
When he finally leaves the volunteer job this month \u2013 retiring at 70 \u2013 Davis leaves a legacy of compassionate care and big shoes to fill.<\/p>\n
Paul Parker, a former supervising investigator who left in 2010, said Davis was a steady presence, always asking how people were doing, always willing to talk.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like an employee assistance program that was there for you all the time. Every single day, right down the hall. Or in the car with you,\u201d Parker said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was there, and so he was seeing what you were seeing. He was smelling what you were smelling. He was hearing the cries of the family that you were hearing. And that went a long way to building trust.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helping staffers and families alike<\/p>\n
Despite never taking a pathology course, Davis ended up removing brains for research after a chief deputy medical examiner, Dr. Christina Stanley, invited him to observe an autopsy and noted his keen interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe taught me everything I needed to know, gave me books on brain anatomy. She\u2019d ask me questions and I just loved it,\u201d he recalled. He picked it up so quickly Stanley questioned whether he had gone to medical school. At a certain point, she decided he could do the work himself.<\/p>\n
That unlikely skill eventually helped him expand his volunteer hours. Davis\u2019 bosses saw the value of having a chaplain around and asked him to work more days. But Davis, who ran a pressure-washing business to pay the bills, said he couldn\u2019t remain unpaid.\u00a0 \u201cI had to feed my wife,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
According to Davis, then-Medical Examiner Dr. Glenn Wagner offered to try to create a budgeted position. But the chaplain said he had to pray on it, and told Wagner he didn\u2019t think that would work. He needed to remain independent, and felt it would be a conflict of interest if he was under the organization\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n
Wagner came up with a unique arrangement \u2013 making Davis the department\u2019s donor liaison and having him paid by outside research groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo in 26 years, I\u2019ve never taken a penny from the county or the medical examiner\u2019s office, but I was a liaison for the brain research,\u201d Davis said. \u201cIt only took maybe 20% of my time. It opened up doors to be there full-time and I still got to do something I loved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, he would get consent from families and then procure brains for researchers at various universities and research organizations, most recently the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, which is looking at blast injuries.<\/p>\n