Edward Roderick Davies (June 2, 1915 – September 8, 1992) was an American industrialist and politician who served as mayor of

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Bloomfield Hills is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit on the Woodward Corridor, Bloomfield Hills is located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, and is ...

. He was the father of

Ann Romney Ann Lois Romney ( Davies; born April 16, 1949) is an American author and philanthropist. She is married to politician and businessman Mitt Romney. From 2003 to 2007, Romney was First Lady of Massachusetts during her husband's tenure as governor ...

, wife of Senator

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and retired politician. He served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Utah from 2019 to 2025 and as the 70th governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 ...

and was a life-long

Atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

Life and career

Davies was born on June 2, 1915, in Caerau, Bridgend, Wales, into a Welsh

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

family. In 1929 he

emigrated Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to the United States with his father David Davies who had

black lung disease Black lung disease (BLD), also known as coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or simply black lung, is an occupational type of pneumoconiosis caused by long-term inhalation and deposition of coal dust in the lungs and the consequent lung tissue's react ...

and had been injured in a

mining accident A mining accident is an accident that occurs during the process of mining minerals or metals. Thousands of miners die from mining accidents each year, especially from underground mining (hard rock), underground coal mining, although accidents al ...

. David worked at a Ford plant and paid for his wife, Annie Davies, and son, Edward, to come thereafter. In 1938, Edward graduated from

General Motors Institute of Technology Kettering University is a private university in Flint, Michigan. It offers Bachelor of Science, bachelor of science and master's degree, master’s degrees in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM (science, technology, engineer ...

with a degree in engineering and, after serving a stint in the U.S. Naval Engineering corps, in 1946 he co-founded a maker of heavy equipment for marine use, Jered Industries. Some sources have suggested that Jered helped to engineer the landing craft used for the

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

invasion of Normandy, though this is unlikely as Jered was not founded until well after D-Day. Davies—who had also worked with the NASA's Gemini space program and served as the mayor of

—was the father of

, wife of former

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

governor and 2012 presidential nominee

. He died on September 8, 1992. Due to a successful business career and wise investments, Davies had amassed an estate worth millions of dollars. At the time of his death, Davies owned large properties and a 65-foot yacht.

Jered

Jered was sold to the British engineering firm

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

in 1980, at Davies' retirement. (The division became an independent entity again in 1997 and was acquired in 2005 by

PaR Systems PAR Systems, Inc, is a systems engineering firm headquartered in Shoreview, Minnesota, specializing in automated manufacturing and material handling equipment. Subsidiaries include Jered LLC, specializing in marine equipment and cargo handling sys ...

Religious views

Davies rejected religion and was an avowed

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

. Before Davies married Lois, he insisted she give up organized religion and later his son Roderick Davies said, "Dad considered people who were religious to be weak in the knees." By the time of his death, he was the only member of Ann Romney's immediate family to have not converted to Latter-day Saint Mormonism. In spite of his atheism and anti-religious views, on the 19th of November, 1993 in a special family meeting, just fourteen months after he died, he was

baptized Baptism (from ) is a Christian sacrament of initiation almost invariably with the use of water. It may be performed by sprinkling or pouring water on the head, or by immersing in water either partially or completely, traditionally three ...

and had his endowment performed for him. On the 10th of June, 1994 Davies, in another LDS Mormon temple ceremony, was

sealed Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal (em ...

for eternity to his wife Lois in the Atlanta, Georgia temple.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Edward Roderick 1915 births 1992 deaths Businesspeople from Michigan Kettering University alumni American atheists 20th-century American engineers Mayors of places in Michigan People from Bridgend County Borough Welsh emigrants to the United States 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century mayors of places in Michigan