Buddy Davis obit

My Dear Friend, Buddy Davis, Is Now Home with the Lord

 

He was not on the list.

by Ken Ham on August 7, 2024

Featured in Ken Ham Blog

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15).

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

After three years of dealing with serious medical issues, my dear and closest friend, Buddy Davis, has gone home to be with the Lord and Savior he so faithfully served.

I’d heard about Buddy over the years while living in Australia because we’d had a few articles in our magazine featuring this guy from America who sculpted dinosaurs and believed what the Bible taught about history. But I didn’t meet him until one of our early Answers in Genesis conferences that took place in Mt. Vernon, Ohio, in 1994.

Buddy had brought his dinosaurs to the conference and displayed them on the stage. We met, and he invited me and the other two founders, Mark Looy and Mike Zovath, back to his and Kay’s log cabin where he showed us more of his dinosaurs. I shared with Buddy that we had a burden for a creation museum and couldn’t figure out how to start it, but at that meeting, I saw the dinosaurs as the key to making that museum a reality, and Buddy and Kay said they’d love to see that.

Meeting Buddy and seeing his world-class dinosaur sculptures really opened our eyes and got us excited about what we could do at the Creation Museum.

That meeting at Buddy’s log cabin was really a turning point in regard to the building of what is now the Creation Museum. You see, dinosaurs have always fascinated people, especially children, but they are almost always a teaching tool for evolution and millions of years. Meeting Buddy and seeing his world-class dinosaur sculptures really opened our eyes and got us excited about what we could do at the Creation Museum.

While at his cabin, I saw Buddy’s guitar hanging on the wall and asked him to play. He’d given up music after pursuing a career in country music and not “making it,” but I finally convinced him to play, and he sang the song, “He Makes Dreams Out of Nothing.” After hearing the song, I told him that I wanted him to sing that song when we opened the Creation Museum—and 13 years later, in 2007, he sang that song during our grand opening.

After the opening of the museum, Buddy became even more involved with the ministry. He composed many songs based on my talks, including one on godly men inspired by my family and parenting talk, one on six days based on my “relevance of Genesis” talk, one on the truth of only one race pulling from my “One Race, One Blood” presentation, a song about the 7 C’s of History drawn from our museum exhibits, and even a funny song about cats after I spoke about how much I dislike cats! But his signature song—kids just love this song—is “Billions of Dead Things,” a song about the fossils that were laid down during Noah’s flood. Families and kids love both his songs and Buddy himself—he was so “homely” (the Aussie way of saying comfortable or “down-to-earth”), kind, and friendly.

It is really sad to see him leave this earth, but he’s left an incredible legacy, and it will go on and on.

But Buddy was more than “just” a major inspiration for the Creation Museum with his dinosaurs, a talented singer-songwriter, or a ministry partner—Buddy became one of the closest friends I’ve ever had. He and I were like brothers. I’m not as close to most people as I was to Buddy. It is really sad to see him leave this earth, but he’s left an incredible legacy, and it will go on and on.

As just two examples, his legacy will continue to impact children who watch his Amazing Adventures programs and his homey Out and About show on Answers TV. In all his programs, he shares biblical truth and the gospel, and I know that will continue to impact children. But his musical legacy will also continue. Our resident artists, TrueSong, are taking the words and music from many of his original songs, changing them to a slightly different style, and will be performing them during their daily concerts.

Over the years, Buddy and I traveled the world giving our Dinosaurs, Genesis, and the Gospel program (later renamed Dinosaurs and More, which you can find on Answers TV) to children and families. During this one-and-a-half-hour program, I would do biblical worldview and creation teaching, and Buddy would sing songs, perform a few illusions, and we’d banter back and forth, joke around, and poke fun at each other. Kids loved it.

Well, the last time we gave that program was in the Answers Center at the Ark Encounter just a few weeks before the stroke that began his health issues three years ago. After we finished the program and he was preparing to leave, Buddy turned to me and said something like,

Ken, I just want to tell you: I can’t say enough, how much being part of this ministry has meant to me. I can’t explain enough how much this ministry has done for me; it’s been so phenomenal for me to be involved with it. It’s been my life. I just can’t thank you enough for what this has meant to me.

As he said that, I had this sinking feeling that it almost sounded like a goodbye. I just wonder if the Lord prompted him to say that because not long after that, he had a stroke and could no longer speak or communicate. It was as if the Lord had said, “Your time of active ministry has ended but it will continue on through Answers in Genesis and the legacy you’ve left.”

Yes, there comes a time when we finish this work on earth and God calls each of us home. This doesn’t make sense from an earthly perspective—I just think of how much more ministry Buddy and I could have done together—but God is in control, and Buddy had fulfilled the mission God called him to. And now he is worshipping the Lord in a totally healed body. What a comfort that truth is!

I want to leave you with an audio recording from Buddy’s and my final program together. It’s the prayer he prayed to close out the program, inviting all the children who had not yet trusted Christ as their Savior to place their faith in Jesus. This prayer really shows Buddy’s heart for the Lord and for people.

Please remember Buddy’s dear and incredibly devoted wife, Kay, in your prayers. Many of you have never met Kay, but she’s the unseen partner behind everything Buddy did. His legacy is her legacy too, a legacy of faithfulness left by a couple who loved and served Jesus (and each other) together to the very end.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken