Maclin "Mac" Paschall Davis III

July 5, 1954 - August 29, 2023

Maclin Paschall Davis III departed this life peacefully late Tuesday afternoon, August 29 with his priest and family in prayer at his bedside, after an almost three-year battle with cancer. He was 69 years old. Mac was the eldest son of Maclin P. Davis, Jr. and his wife Dorothy Savage Davis and the grandson of Maclin P. Davis and his wife Edith Uhler Davis of Nashville and Joseph Watson Savage and his wife Evie Grace Savage of Memphis. He is survived by his wife Vicky Vander Naillen Davis, his daughters Laura Rose Davis, and Mary Elaine Trueba (Jules), his brother Joseph Norman Davis (Cynthia), his sister Dorothy Savage Davis, and his late father’s widow, Joan Hager Davis.

Like his father and brother, Mac attended Parmer School for his elementary education. After an outstanding academic career at Montgomery Bell Academy, he graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1976 with a B.S. in business with an accounting major. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Gamma Sigma honorary societies. On his Facebook profile page, he listed as his languages “Latin and Ancient Greek.”

As a student at UNC, he caught fire as a Tar Heel basketball fan, and he hardly missed a game ever since. Mac absorbed massive amounts of music in the late 60s and early 70s. In the mid-70s, he became a Little Feat superfan and was instrumental in developing Little Feat’s fanbase throughout the country. He attended many concerts, festivals, and fund-raisers where Little Feat played, and they loved him almost as much as he loved them. He was also a lifelong musician, transitioning early from violin to drums and bass guitar. A succession of Nashville bands, including the 1969 Band and Fade to Black, laid their songs on the impeccable beat of his drums for over forty years.

Mac passed the CPA exam in 1977 and was accepted as a Certified Public Accountant in Tennessee after two years of experience with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. He served as a senior accountant with Baker & Davis from 1982 until 1985, when he joined Gen Cap Corporation, which became Gen Cap America in 1988. Mac served there as Chief Financial Officer and Controller until August 2023. They celebrated his 38th anniversary of working there on August 18.

He was a faithful member of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church from 1965 to 2010, when he and many members of St. Andrew’s formed St. Andrew’s Anglican Church. He sang as a cantor at St. Andrew’s all his adult life and served for a quarter of a century as treasurer.

Mac will be remembered for his keen wit, unique sense of humor, and for his devotion to Firesign Theater, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Monty Python, and Gilbert and Sullivan. He loved fine food, whether at a special restaurant or from his own grill and kitchen. He encouraged others to enjoy the good things in life he loved so much, such as music, literature, and movies. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him well—family, friends, colleagues, and bandmates.

There will be a Memorial Mass for Mac at the Anglican Church of the Redeemer on 920 Caldwell Lane, Nashville at 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 19, with visitation at the church beginning at 12:30 p.m. A brief service of interment of ashes will be held at Woodlawn Memorial Park, 660 Thompson Lane, at 11:00 a.m., Friday, September 15. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be given to St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, 4513 Park Avenue, Nashville, 37209.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.neptunesociety.com/location/nashville-cremation for the Davis family.