2024 NSS Luminary Series – Emily Davis
NSS 12154 RL FE.
Emily was born in Boston in 1950. She grew up in a middle-class home where art, music and theater were prevalent features. Her first serious outdoor activity was hiking up Mount Washington at 13. She attended a Bohemian prep school where the students were encouraged to run all activities except the dormitories and academia. She worked for a veterinarian through high school and was accepted at the University of Denver (DU) in a pre-veterinary med program. It was at this time that her life took a 180-degree turn, which would lead her in the direction she would follow right up to this day.
At a DU Outing Club meeting, a really cute guy stood up and started talking about caving. Emily had never heard of caving, but he was cute and caving sounded interesting. That weekend, she fell madly in love – with caving. But that cute guy, Peter Jones, is still her best friend. Emily became involved in supporting and helping to run the Outing Club’s caving group as the newsletter editor for the year she was in Denver.
The medical career was not to be, calculus eluded her, and she returned to the east where she became an officer of the Boston Grotto. She attended Franklin Pierce College and ran an active caving club with trips to West Virginia, Vermont, New York and Puerto Rico. Her first real expedition was continuing work that Russ Gurnee had started, mapping a large part of the Rio Camuy system. Caving had moved to the center of her life. Emily attended her first NSS convention in 1971. She was so enthralled that she has only missed two conventions since.
Emily completed her bachelor’s in creative and performing arts. She immediately started a masters program, which led to a master of science degree in communication arts. In 1975 and 1976, Emily went in search of cave books in every used and antiquarian bookshop she could find. She started putting together a personal collection and put aside duplicates, which she eventually took to the 1976 Convention and sold at the caver tag sale, held before the Howdy Party. Much to her surprise, she made a profit of $100, which covered her expenses for attending the convention. She soon after met and married an antiquarian book dealer, William Frost Mobley, who encouraged her pursuit of cave and bat books and art. They also were two of four founding members of the Ephemera Society of America.
In 1978, Doug and Linda Rhodes, who had established Speleobooks in 1973, decided to sell the business. Emily borrowed money from her father to buy it. Her father asked if she thought it was a good investment. Emily replied, “I think it may be life changing.” Emily was teaching at a small, private school in western Massachusetts and managed to both run the business, teach, coach a bicycle team, run an outing club and build sets and do technical work in the theater for nine years. During that time, Emily realized how much she enjoyed making the NSS a stronger and more cohesive organization. She volunteered as treasurer for the 1979 Convention in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In the early 1980s, Emily served as an NSS board member.
By the mid 80s, Emily was no longer able to run Speleobooks, do NSS volunteer work, and teach. The teaching went, and Emily and Bill moved to Schoharie, New York, where they had plans to make their home in the center of the northeast caving world. Speleobooks had an open-door policy, welcoming experienced and beginner cavers with maps, permits and crash space, resulting in a fat guest register filled with the names of cavers from around the world.
The NSS already owned nearby McFails Cave. In the late 80s, Emily and Russ Gurnee worked together to secure what would become the James Gage Nature Preserve to the National Speleological Foundation, later to be transferred to the NSS. Emily was heavily involved in the establishment of cave rescue training and rescue practices with the local cavers and two sheriff’s departments. She often made weekend trips to West Virginia, staying with or near Bob & Bob’s in Sinks Grove, West Virginia. She carried tanks to the back of Scott Hollow Cave, McFails Cave and others for dive exploration teams. She worked on high leads with climbers on many trips in Scott Hollow.
Owning Speleobooks allowed Emily flexibility to assist with local vertical training, beginner trips, and many regional events. She is proud of her ability to cook for large groups, not have a lot of leftovers and make profits for organizations sponsoring meals at caving events. The time flexibility also allowed Emily to listen for possible opportunities for project caving. Comments made on the porch of her octagon shaped shop led to helping map the deepest cave in Costa Rica. In 1989, on a trip in Scott Hollow that lasted 18 hours, it was suggested that she apply for Lechuguilla expeditions. On a Lechuguilla expedition in March 1991, a hand hold popped loose, causing Emily to become a worldwide celebrity when she broke her leg. From the beginning of the rescue and for weeks afterward, Emily’s goal was to put the caving community and the NSS in the best possible light and get back into Lechuguilla in a year. Her public speaking background allowed her to steer the press to accomplish the publicity goals. A tough physical therapist helped her accomplish the goal to be back in Lechuguilla a year later. Having a broken leg did not stop Emily from her job as the treasurer of the 1991 Cobleskill Convention, nor from running Speleobooks.
Emily continued to volunteer for the NSS, including managing all three of New York’s NSS cave preserves. She also helped to a cave owned by the Northeastern Cave Conservancy for over 25 years. Emily continued to welcome beginners and encouraged NSS membership, while leading Introduction to McFails trips most years. In 1997 Bill Mobley needed to change his life and moved west. Mike Warner joined Speleobooks and brought it into the 21st Century by putting it on the web. Soon after, Mike joined Emily as a life partner. Mike and Emily encouraged the Northeastern Cave Conservancy to expand its horizons and become a member based land trust. They set up the conservancy’s offices in their home.
In 2001, Emily and Mike were encouraged by Don Coons to come to Hawaii and join in the excitement of mapping long, multilevel, braided lava tubes. Project work in Hawaii has continued since. The Cave Conservancy of Hawaii was established during this time and has included Emily as a committee head since inception.
Emily’s volunteerism and the benefits she has received from it do not stop with the NSS. When her town was flooded in 2011 with more than eight feet of water on the main street, Emily volunteered to run a soup kitchen for two years. Over 25,000 meals were served to townspeople and volunteers. Emily became close friends with community members she had never known and gained enormous satisfaction seeing people who had lost most of their possessions smiling and enjoying a meal together with others. It was the years of volunteer work with the NSS that prepared her for this job. When asked if she had ever run a restaurant, she said, “no, I learned incident command in cave rescue.”
Emily and Mike were at a bat research meeting and saw a flier looking for volunteers to do bat field work in Fiji with Bat Conservation International. Mike said, “they would never pick us as volunteers, because there are 450 bat scientists here, and we don’t have the substantial credentials on display in the room.” Emily reminded him that none of those scientists knew how to map a cave, and that was part of the project. They volunteered, went to Fiji and helped define land that needed to be protected above and around the cave, which held the only major roost of Fijian Free-Tailed Bats. Emily continues to try and find ways to support the caving community and the NSS. Having worked on the staff and volunteering for at least 25 conventions, she is now working on the Vertical Training Commission curriculum committee and is assistant to the chairs of the 2025 convention. Emily still runs Speleobooks, trying to connect used books with people who need or want them. And Emily is always looking for that next opportunity to help where she can because, in the end, it is the rewards that come with volunteering that open so many doors.
