Remembering Donald Davidson, a longtime theater man

If you ask people they feel about Donald Davidson, the answer they’d give is fairly simple: ‘We need more people like him.”

Davidson was creative and talented in many walks of life, best remembered by most as an integral part of the North Merrick School District’s Theatre Arts program, where he worked with students and designed sets, alongside teachers Joyce Kelley and Gail Appel.

“We need more people like Donald Davidson,” Kelley said. “He was always friendly and kind, big hearted — generous. Very creative and talented. If you want to make this world a better place, we need more people like Donald Davidson.”

Davidson died on July 7. He was 66.

“Music and the arts has always been his best companion,” his wife, Helen Davidson, said. “He was always very intelligent, quick witted, had an amazing sense of humor. He had a very different way of looking at things in the world, and life, that were not necessarily mainstream, but very forward thinking.”

The couple had known each other for 52 years, she said, having attended the same elementary school in Levittown. They formally met in junior high school and started dating in 1972, when they were both 15. They married at the age of 21 and moved to Merrick the following year. 

Donald Davidson began working as a contractor, before they went into the video business together, she said, but he always had a passion for the arts, music and theater.

“He had a very big personality, where he could walk into any environment (and) immediately fill the room,” Helen Davidson said. “He was very friendly, very empathetic, especially with kids. Donald loved the kids and always had this gift relating to the kids.”

The Davidsons had been married 17 years when they had their son, Harley, who is now 28. When Harley was in third grade at Fayette Elementary School in North Merrick, the couple began working with Kelley and Appel.

“He wasn’t the type to yell at a kid,” Helen Davidson said of her husband. “He redirected them — he had a gift for doing that. A lot of people don’t have that.”

Together, the Davidsons also began working with various music-themed rock camps. She worked on the administrative side, while he was involved with the kids, teaching them about music and performing. They worked with a company based in Connecticut, she said, and would find local venues in the area to host one- or two-week long camps.

“They loved him,” she said of their campers. “He really went out of his way to help the kids feel included and to help them shine.”

Kelley recalled the Davidsons’ Halloween Party, which they’d host annually at their home — and it would be open to the whole neighborhood.

“You know, this man was a brilliant, creative thinker, so he would cover the backyard in lighting and decorations,” she said. “He would design and build a famous maze that covered the entire backyard and ended as a disco in the garage. Kids that are 35 years old today are still talking about it.”

The parties were a community effort, and other parents would volunteer, Helen Davidson said. But her husband was a community man — and many people knew him well.

“He was always the kind of guy where, you know, if you asked him for a favor, you asked him to help you, he was always there to help,” she said. “He was a very good problem solver and he had a solution for everything.”

Their son took part in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s specialty drama program, On Tour — for students interested in performance, production and theater. The program is housed at Calhoun High School and led by Sal Salerno.

And while Helen Davidson said they accomplished some work with Calhoun, videotaping plays and things like that, her husband’s main work was always with the elementary schools.

Appel, who runs the theatre art’s program with Kelley, said Davidson was a kind and talented man with an amazing heart — an “indispensable part” of the district’s productions.

Cynthia Seniuk, superintendent of schools in North Merrick, also spoke highly of Donald Davidson.

“I didn’t know Donald that well personally,” she said, “but what I did learn about him very quickly is that he lived life to the fullest and never let the fire of his inner child go dim, and he always kept the fire shining bright for all the children of North Merrick.”

Outside of his work in the schools, he always played in a band, his wife said, and produced the music for the Huntington Lighthouse Music Festival annually. On Labor Day weekend, music is projected from a working lighthouse in the middle of the water, to hundreds of boats that come to listen.

“Donald’s job was to gather the bands, the musicians, and figure out how to have the sound projected to over 1,000 boats that are in the harbor,” she said. “It was a labor of love — it’s always been a labor of love, just like the theater kids.”

Helen Davidson said that while they don’t have anything specific planned yet, her family and the community are looking into ways to memorialize him and carry on his legacy in the schools.

A musical tribute recently took place at the Garden Social in East Meadow. “We had a lot of neighbors there, and they all said, ‘He was the mayor,’” his wife said, laughing. “He was a really ethical, humanistic type of person — a great guy, a really great guy.”