Brother Edward Davis, 84, professor at La Salle

Brother Edward Davis, 84, a retired La Salle University religion professor, died Saturday, June 29, of liver cancer at De La Salle Hall, a nursing facility for the Christian Brothers in Lincroft, N.J.

Brother Edward was remembered as a gifted and popular teacher who showed the Bible to be compelling reading.

"His classes were always in demand, because he knew how to use his wit and broad knowledge to make Scripture come alive in the classroom for students," said La Salle president Brother Michael J. McGinniss.

The lessons even appealed to those "not destined to follow his career as scholars of Scripture, but who would go on to be faithful believers and participants in their churches," Brother Michael said.

Brother Edward was born in Baltimore and graduated from Loyola College in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in English. He joined the Brothers of the Christian Schools at age 21.

In 1955, he earned master's degrees in theology and education from La Salle and Loyola, respectively. He earned a doctorate in theology from Catholic University of America in 1970. He also completed advanced study and field work in archaeology at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, and in Greek and Hebrew at Princeton Theological Seminary.

After completing his studies at the brothers' scholasticate in Elkins Park, he taught there for three years. Scholasticate is a college-level school of general study for those preparing for membership in a Roman Catholic order.

From 1955 to 1962, he taught religion at La Salle, where he was also director of resident housing. For the next five years, he taught at St. John's College High School in Washington and at Calvert Hall College High School in Baltimore.

He returned to La Salle in 1967, and served as the director of the graduate religion program from 1967 to 1974. He chaired the religion department from 1978 to 1982. He also spent a year as a divinity lecturer at Christ's College of the University of Liverpool, England, in the early 1970s.

Msgr. Joseph Devlin, religion professor at La Salle, recalled Brother Edward as "a man of extraordinary intellect, very dedicated to what he was doing in service of the students."

He had a lively sense of humor, and alumni would refer to his wit after taking his class.

Brother Edward received the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1985.

In an interview published in the 1979 La Salle yearbook, Brother Edward said, "We're not out to produce well-rounded students, but students with sharp edges."

Richard Van Fossen, a 1988 La Salle graduate, took a course with Brother Edward on the Gospel of St. John because it was the Gospel he knew least.

"He was amazing," Van Fossen said. "He'd go over it line by line, and illuminated it beautifully."

In the 1980s, Brother Edward and colleague Brother Joseph Keenan traveled through the Middle East and Asia, to places mentioned in Scripture.

"How can you teach the Bible if you don't go to Jerusalem?" Brother Edward once said.

Brother Edward retired in 1995 and lived at St. Mary's, a brothers' community in West Mount Airy that he helped found.

There are no immediate survivors.

A viewing will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 12, at La Salle University's De La Salle Chapel, 1900 W. Olney Ave. A Funeral Mass will be at 7 p.m. Burial will be in the brothers' cemetery in Beltsville, Md.