A great advisor, but even better friend

Leslie Paul Davaz: 1957-2017

Les Davaz passed away June 17 at home in Charlotte of cancer. He was 60.

He was born March 26, 1957 in Aberdeen, Md. to 1st Lt. Carl G. and Mildred M. Davaz, the third of five sons. He grew up around the world with stops in Maryland, Alaska, Colorado, Taiwan, Kansas and Germany.

An early Army brat travel memory was of Les, his four brothers, mother, father and grandmother crammed like sardines in a 1957 Chevrolet sedan in the time before seat belts, driving across the country from Maryland to Washington state en route to Alaska.

He graduated from Mannheim American High School, Germany in 1975.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree specializing in the field of political economy from the University of Washington in 1979.

Soon after, he moved to Virginia and spent time working as a warehouseman and school bus driver. He paid his own way through college and went on to receive a Master of Business Administration degree in Business Administration and Management from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 1992.

Les married the love of his life, Socorro Irene Martínez de Andino on Feb. 2, 1991, in Charlotte. They had two sons, Lukas and Nicholas.

He had a successful career as a financial advisor where he was regarded as conscientious, decisive and knowledgeable. He worked with about 150 families in the U.S. and Canada addressing investment, tax and legal affairs. His clients — which were made up of many generations of families — regarded him as a great advisor, but an even better friend.

He retired from his position of vice president and financial advisor at RBC Wealth Management in March 2017.

He was a devout Roman Catholic and had served as past chairman of the St. Patrick’s Catholic Church parish council and as a member of philanthropic organizations which improved the life of his adopted city of Charlotte.

An avid lover of music, Les was an accomplished guitarist. He favored electric guitars and played them with the volume turned up loud for 45 years. He swapped and traded guitars with his sons. He was a fan of jazz, funk and rock and roll. The Beatles were his favorite group and like many purists, preferred their original pre-digital version recordings. Whenever he would buy an album he’d listen to it all the way through, over and over again.

The happiest Les would ever be was with his sons Lukas and Nick in the wild country of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of northern Minnesota and southern Ontario. The wilderness experience transformed him. In canoe country he lived life in the present with his accomplishments defined by planning, stamina and love of being with people he cared about most.

One such trip in the summer of 1979 put him in the heart of the Quetico Provincial Park with his brothers Nick and Carl at the remote and difficult-to-access Poohbah Lake. As night came on, the scene was dramatically changed by shimmering green curtains of the Northern Lights dancing from the horizon to the heavens. They would never forget that time of solitude and splendor, like they will never forget the brother, husband, father and friend, Leslie Paul Davaz.

We loved him very much.

He was preceded in death by his parents Carl G. and Mildred M. Davaz.

Survivors include his wife Socky of Charlotte; and sons Lukas of Washington, D.C.; and Nick of New York City. Four brothers and sisters-in-law: Carl and Kim of Eugene, Ore.; Nicholas and Roxanne of Santa Barbara, Calif., and Mesa, Ariz.; Douglas and Sandra of Chandler, Ariz.; and Dennis and Karen of Livingston, Mont. His mother-in-law Nilda Monserrate of Charlotte; sisters-in-law Nily Willis and Victoria Coleman and brother-in-law Joaquim Martínez de Andino of Charlotte.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m., on Monday, Aug. 7 at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Charlotte.