Davidson Amplifier Repair :: Jon's Bio
His great grandfather Hoyt Knight, a Republican, was a member of the Vermont Legislature
at the onset of the Great Depression. On his dad's side of the family, great
grandfather John Davidson, a Democrat, was a county commissioner in Lorain County, Ohio.
Grandpa Knight was a building contractor who employed many of the men in the
village during the Depression. Grandpa Davidson lost his store in the Depression,
and became a deputy sheriff for Lorain County. The next generation included
schoolteachers and other civil servants. Jon's dad grew up in a small Midwestern
college town. His mom grew up in a Vermont village of less than 1,000 people. Jon
was born in 1961 in Ohio and the family moved to a milltown suburb in Connecticut when
he was a year old.
Family vacations usually involved trips to a variety of art museums with Mom, and to most of the prominent New England historical sites, especially Revolutionary War landmarks, with his father. With 26 Revolutionary War ancestors on his father's side of the family and having
ancestors who arrived at Plymouth Rock on the Mayflower in 1620, as well as at Jamestown in 1607, Jon took these visits deeply to heart. When Dad comes to Nashville on his annual vacation, Jon takes him to Stones River, Fort Donelson, the Hermitage, Belle Meade, Lookout Mountain, and Chickamauga. His father has several articles appearing in the Journal of Military Historians this summer, so you can see that a lifelong pursuit of knowledge is important to the Davidson family.
Jon attended the public schools, graduating second out of a class of 266, from Wolcott High School in 1979. At the age of 17 he earned a trophy for his local high school at the Connecticut State Science Fair for measuring the mass of the planet Jupiter from his backyard using a 6" reflector telescope
that he built himself, and some pretty nifty mathematical calculations. He was a finalist in the 1979 Westinghouse Science Talent Search and his name appeared in the New York Times. He also won a National Merit Scholarship and his high school's Albert Einstein Science Award. His senior class elected him as the "Boy Most Likely To Succceed." He still
has the "Girl Most Likely To Succeed" as
a penpal and good friend.
Education and Work
Jon has always been a great lover of learning, whether from books or tinkering with cars, woodworking, plumbing, gardening, music or whatever.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts with a concentrations in Music Theory and Composition as well as History, studying on his own, from the University of the State of New York, graduating in 1988. He has had jobs ranging from factory hand to teaching school. His scientific talents, combined with a family love of music and a tradition of small business ownership led to Nashville and the creation of Davidson Amplifier Repair at age 32 in 1993.
Jon Davidson, polishing the main mirror of a six inch f/10
reflecting telescope, or simply reflector. He is 17 in this picture and planning a career in astronomy.
The "Green" Amp Guy
Jon is also an avid gardener. His dad was pretty square but subscribed to the Mother Earth News where Jon learned all about off-grid living. The family even made their own yogurt maker using directions from an article entitled "Make Your Own Yogurt Maker". Unfortunately Mom and Dad were not so supportive when it came to "Build Your Own Methane Factory", or even "Build Your Own Solar Heated Cave on the Side of a Mountain". At least he built his own raft to float down the Mississippi, and lately he's been thinking of really building a little houseboat since he could launch it from the Shelby Park boat landing and follow the Cumberland River down, down to the Gulf of Mexico. After all, it's all "downhill" and maybe at least one dream could finally come true this way.
But getting back on topic, Jon started his first organic garden
when he was eleven years old. He fertilized his garden with peat
from the woods behind the family home, ashes from the fireplace,
and lime, ( Connecticut has acid
soil from all the oak trees). One of
his mom's teacher friends had a horse which gladly donated some
of its spare manure. Pest control
was even more organic, according
to Jon, " I did nothing about the bugs. I was a kid. I had no way to
mail-order ladybugs and mantises.
My
vegetables had a few worms in them,
but they were otherwise pure." He took the 2007 drought rather personally, since he specifically chose his new residence/ workshop for its lovely yard with ample sunshine, not to mention its location a few hundred yards North of the original Lockeland Spring. "I thought that being in the East Nashville Gulch was a guarantee of adequate water for my plants, but I was wrong... again." Better luck next year, Mr. Davidson!
