Lee Roy Davis, 51; Player on 1971 Titans Team

Lee Roy "Monk" Davis, 51, a defensive back on the 1971 T.C. Williams High School football team memorialized in the movie "Remember the Titans," died of multiple myeloma July 31 at Duke University Hospital. He lived in Knightdale, N.C.

Mr. Davis, an Alexandria native who grew up in a housing project known as "The Berg," worked his way through high school, college and graduate school. At the time of his death, he was finance manager in the genetics research division of GlaxoSmithKline, one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies.

While he was growing up in Alexandria, his parents worked minimum-wage jobs, so Mr. Davis got his first job at age 12. He had a newspaper route, and at 13 he was washing dishes in a restaurant. An honor student in high school, he received a starting place on the football team more through hard work than innate athletic ability, his brother said.

The Titans football team became legendary when the school was desegregated and juniors and seniors from three senior high schools were consolidated into one school, T.C. Williams. A black coach, Herman Boone, was named to head the football team. Racial tensions in the community and in the school were high, but the team developed into a model of integration and went on to an unbeaten season, winning the AAA state championship.

Wearing the No. 20 jersey, Mr. Davis led the team with five interceptions and was named to all-city, all-district and all-regional teams. His teammates said that every night before a game, he would pray that no competitor he covered would catch a touchdown pass. With one exception, none did.

He won an academic scholarship to Duke University and then as a walk-on member of the football team received a full athletic scholarship. He played all four years. After graduation, Mr. Davis worked as an accountant for American Hospital Supply in Macon, Ga. While there, he attended Mercer University at night and received a master's degree in business administration in 1979.

In 1986, he joined the pharmaceutical firm now known as GlaxoSmithKline.

Earl Cook, who was his teammate in high school and college, said many people called Mr. Davis their best friend.

"He was very much an extroverted, compassionate person," Cook said. "I witnessed this guy go get food for homeless people. That was as much a part of his makeup as anything to do with his professional or athletic life. He had a tremendous sense of humor. . . . If he didn't know something, he found it. If he was behind, he caught up. And if he was ahead, he pulled up people behind him."

Mr. Davis was a deacon at Wake Chapel Church in Raleigh. He was also a board member of the North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research and the National Association of Accountants.

Survivors include his wife of 22 years, Scarlette Carter Davis of Knightdale; a son from a previous relationship, Aarion Davis of Macon; two sons from his marriage, Chris Davis and Capp Davis, both of Raleigh, N.C.; his parents, Andrew and Carrie Davis of Alexandria; three brothers, Kwame Shakoor, Kevin Davis and Andrew Davis Jr., all of Alexandria; and three grandchildren.