Representative Philip A. Davitt View All Years

PHILIP DAVITT

Mr. Speaker: Your committee, appointed to prepare a suitable resolution commemorating the life, character, and public service of the late Honorable Philip Davitt, begs leave to submit the following Memorial:

Philip Davitt was born May 23, 1931 in Madison County, Iowa. In 1950, he married Theo Love; they had four sons and two daughters.

Mr. Davitt was a graduate of Martensdale High School. He had been a grain and livestock farmer, a former Firestone Tire and Rubber worker, engineer for the Rock Island Railroad and an insurance agent.

Mr. Davitt was active in numerous social and civic organizations. He served on the Board of Directors of Polk-Warren County Mutual Insurance Co., was a former Warren County Township Trustee, a thirty-year member of the Warren County Democrats, and a member of the Farm Bureau, Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Church.

A Democrat, Mr. Davitt represented parts of Warren, Dallas, Madison, Adair and Clarke counties during the Sixty-seventh, Sixty-seventh Extra, Sixty-eighth, Sixty-ninth, and Seventieth General Assemblies. In his second term, Mr. Davitt was elected an Assistant Minority Leader by his Democrat colleagues and served as an Assistant Majority Leader in 1983-84. Mr. Davitt was also a candidate for the Democrat nomination for Congress in the Fifth Congressional District of Iowa in 1984.

Representative Davitt was a respected farm legislator who served as ranking Democrat member on the House Agriculture Committee in 1981-82. In that capacity, he was involved in all major agricultural-related issues during his tenure, particularly legislation to help farmers resolve fence disputes, regulating grain warehouses, and assuring adequate rail transportation for farm commodities.

Philip Davitt died October 21, 1994. He is survived by his wife, Theo, of Bella Vista, Arkansas; his four sons: Mark of Pleasant Hill, Mike of St. Marys, Joe of Johnston, and Jay of Bella Vista, Arkansas; his two daughters: Maria Robinson and Julie Haskins both of Bella Vista, Arkansas; his mother Barbara of Norwalk, his brother, Robert of West Des Moines; his five sisters: Mary Steinhauser of Parnell, Missouri, Joann Deatsch of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, Dorothy Thomas of Morton, Illinois, Jane McCurnin of Norwalk, and Helen Ripperger of Indianola; and sixteen grandchildren.

Now Therefore, Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the Seventy-sixth General Assembly of Iowa, That in the passing of the Honorable Philip Davitt, the State has lost an honored citizen and a faithful and useful public servant, and the House by this Resolution would express its appreciation of his service.

Be It Further Resolved, that a copy of the Resolution be spread upon the Journal of the House, and that the Chief Clerk be directed to forward an enrolled copy to the family of the deceased.

DAVID SCHRADER

BRIAN A. COON

ED FALLON

Committee