Jack Davies graduated from Leeds University Medical School in 1941 with a B.Sc. degree in Anatomy. He received his M.D. as a Rockefeller scholar from the University of Iowa in 1943 and also received a M.D. from Leeds in 1948. A native of England, Davies joined the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine faculty as Chair of the Department of Anatomy in 1963 and served in that capacity for 21 years. Davies retired in 1984 and served as professor and chairman emeritus.

In 1989, Davies relocated to Seattle to be closer to his children, and he continued teaching students at the University of Washington as well as some courses at Vanderbilt.

Davies was widely known for his research in endocrinology and his work with electron microscopes. He is also known as being one of the first educators in Medical Ethics, having organized and taught an elective course in the subject at Vanderbilt from 1971 to 1980. In 1984, the Jack Davies Award for Teaching Excellence in the Basic Sciences has been established in his honor by VUSM. Davies passed away in 1991.