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Obituaries published in the April 2025 edition of the Texas Press Messenger.

PAUL HARVEY DAVIS

SCHERTZ – Senior Master Sergeant Paul Harvey Davis, U.S. Air Force (Retired), who had a successful second career in the newspaper business, died Jan. 25 in Cleveland. He was 88.

A native of  Ward, Arkansas, he served in the Colorado National Guard before transitioning to active duty in the United States Air Force on July 27, 1954. He was a veteran of both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts, retiring after 22½ years of service on July 27, 1976.

After retiring from the military, Davis built a successful second career in the newspaper industry, working for 35 years before retiring as publisher of the Southside Reporter, a Hearst Media publication, in December 2011.

He began his newspaper journey at the Weekly Herald of Universal City on Aug. 3, 1976, and quickly rose through the ranks, becoming general manager in 1982 and publisher in 1984. He joined the San Antonio Light sales team in 1989, where he served as a sales manager and later led the successful total market distribution program Publisher’s Express.

He moved to the Herald-Zeitung in New Braunfels in 1995 before returning to Hearst Media at the San Antonio Express-News in 1996, ultimately leading the Southside Reporter until his retirement.

Davis was also involved in his community. He served as president of the Randolph Metrocom Chamber of Commerce (1985-1986) and was active in the Rotary Clubs of New Braunfels and San Antonio Highlands. 

He also held various positions on the Universal City Council, including serving on the Library Committee, Board of Adjustments, and the Planning and Zoning Committee. Additionally, he was involved with the Port of San Antonio.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 63 years, Elizabeth Louise Foster Davis. He is survived by four of his six children, 13 grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren and other relatives.

Services were held March 14 at Schertz Funeral Home. Interment followed at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

RICHARD LEON PARKER

EL PASO – Richard Parker, 61, an author and award-winning journalist whose career spanned more than three decades and three continents, died March 6 in El Paso.

Parker was the author of “The Crossing: El Paso, The Southwest, and America’s Forgotten Origin Story,” and “Lone Star Nation: How Texas Will Transform America,” among other works.

He was an op-ed contributor for The New York Times. He also wrote for The Atlantic, was a Sunday columnist at the Houston Chronicle, a columnist for The Dallas Morning News, Politico Magazine, the Los Angeles Times ,and other leading publications.

In 2018, he won the top award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

In 2019, NBC News named him one of the nation’s 20 most influential Latinos for his coverage of the El Paso massacre. Early in his career he was a reporter for the Albuquerque Journal.

In his personal life, he was a longtime resident of Washington, D.C., Austin, Wimberley and El Paso, Texas. He loved the Texas Hill Country, fly fishing, bird hunting and the Mexican Caribbean.

A son of the Southwest, he was born in Albuquerque, raised in El Paso and earned a bachelor’s degree at Trinity University in San Antonio. While there he graduated from U.S. Army Reserve Officers Training Corps basic training in Kentucky as well as the Boulder Outdoor School of Survival.