Lou Davis; Former Times Purchasing Director

Lou Davis, former purchasing director for The Times and its subsidiary Times Mirror Press for almost four decades, has died. He was 88.

Davis died Sunday night in a Sherman Oaks nursing home of complications from Alzheimer’s disease and pneumonia.

After studying at Woodbury College in Los Angeles, Davis decided to become a stockbroker and enrolled in the Los Angeles Stock Exchange Institute.

But in July 1931, he took a job as a stock clerk at The Times and abandoned thoughts of the investment industry. In April 1937, he was promoted to assistant purchasing agent and a few months later became purchasing agent. He was a key aide and friend to Mr. and Mrs. Norman Chandler, former publisher of The Times and his wife, who founded the Los Angeles County Music Center.

Davis retired in 1975 after 42 years with the newspaper company.

He is survived by a son, Harvey Davis, of Santa Rosa, Calif., and a daughter, Barbara Schwimmer, of Cambria, Calif., four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. today at Hillside Mortuary in Los Angeles.