Meet Todd Davis

“My life is about giving thanks to God for creation,” Todd Davis told the UMC congregation in a recent sermon. Todd, who teaches writing, literature, and environmental studies at Penn State’s Altoona campus, is a man of quiet grace and deep conviction. A poet as well as a teacher, he published his third book of poetry, The Least of These, in December of 2009.

Todd’s poems have earned him literary acclaim, yet he is as passionate about his family and their activities together – basketball, hiking, skiing, hunting, and gardening – as he is about his professional life. “My life is all of one piece,” Todd explains. “I’ve always written, always seen the natural world as sacred, and always valued working and playing together as a family.”

Todd grew up in Elkhart, Indiana, where his father practiced veterinary medicine and instilled in his son a love of words and an appreciation for hard work. Todd’s mother taught elementary school and introduced him to a life of faith. Todd met his future wife, Shelly, also a basketball player and enthusiast, in 7^th grade when she moved from Holmes County, Ohio, to Elkhart. After attending Grace College and upon finishing his Ph.D. at Northern Illinois University in 1995, Todd and Shelly spent the next six years in Indiana while Todd taught at Goshen College. Eight years ago the Davis family – now with two sons, Noah and Nathan, in tow – moved to the Altoona area and began attending University Mennonite Church.

Todd appreciates the transparency and honesty of the people at UMC. He loves the time of congregational sharing on Sunday morning, when people stand up to ask for prayer and confess their joys and sorrows. “Like a good family, this congregation accepts the best and the worst of life and allows people to be who they really are,” Todd says.

As a university professor, Todd also values the presence of other professors at UMC. “As the body of Christ, we need different things,” Todd says, “and I need people who show me that faith is not incompatible with scholarly thought or the discoveries of science. I need to be with men and women who are intellectually rigorous but deeply spiritual – people at the top of their field who love Jesus and are committed to him.”

In both his work and his play, Todd’s passion for the natural world is evident. His poems are filled with images of animals and flowers and fields, in all their beauty and horror. Todd describes art as a “means of communion, a bridge with the Creator,” and as “a gesture toward mystery and complexity.” He sees interconnections in creation and in life – connections between people and people, people and places, and people and God.

Todd views the world not only as a place of complexity, but also as a place of sacredness and wholeness. “I tell my students that the whole person is involved in the act of writing,” he says, “so they will hear about my family and my faith.” Whether he is playing basketball with his sons, walking through the woods, or giving a lecture, Todd is always a poet at work. “Writing is integral to who I am,” he explains – and we at UMC are so deeply glad that it is.

by Naomi Smith