Between arranging songs and writing marching band pieces, composer Albert Oliver Davis still made time to write songs for his granddaughter Audrey Wright.
"He would write solos just for me," Wright said. "He was the most wonderful person I have ever met."
The ASU alumnus who composed more than 600 songs, including ASU's No. 2 fight song "Go Go Sun Devils," better known as "The Al Davis Fight Song," passed away Oct. 16 in Phoenix. He was 84.
Davis also arranged "Maroon and Gold," the most commonly heard ASU fight song.
" 'Maroon and Gold' is the one people are most able to recognize," said Sun Devil Marching Band Director Martin Province.
Davis received a bachelor's degree in education in 1943 and began his teaching career that same year as a band director in Tombstone, Ariz.
He went on to receive a master's degree from ASU in 1951 and directed various bands around the state, including high schools in Litchfield and Glendale, as well as his final position as band director and chair of the music department at Phoenix College, from which he retired in 1982.
Former Sun Devil Marching Band member Randy Tivens said Davis was "a very prominent composer and a great guy."
"He arranged music for the Sun Devil Marching Band for many years," Tivens said. "He was very inspiring and would do anything for anyone."
Olive Davis, his wife of 59 years, said when he began teaching in Tombstone, Davis repaired the 50 instruments that the school owned but was unable to use.
"Educational music was his biggest thing," Olive said. "He could teach them in such a way that they could only get satisfaction out of it."
His granddaughter agreed.
"He got really involved in the lives of his students," Wright said.
When he was not teaching and pioneering organizations, such as the Arizona Band and Orchestra Directors Association, he loved to travel, dance and spend time with his daughters, Penni and Cindy.
"We traveled a lot, and he was a wonderful father to the girls," Olive said. "He always had time for his family."
Although the popularity of his fight songs will live on in the minds of Sun Devils for generations, it is Davis' musical legacy that will live on in their hearts.
"Even after all of us are gone, his music will still be there," Wright said. "It is his legacy."
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. today at First United Methodist Church, 5510 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix.
Reach the reporter at jenna.eckenrode@asu.edu.
