Luther Berryhill Davis was born in Brooklyn on Aug. 29, 1916. In 1921 when he was only four, tragedy struck. His father, Charles T. Davis, a businessman and inventor who worked at the surgical-supply company Davis & Geck, shot two policemen and an insurance adjuster who came to his office. The elder Mr. Davis apparently believed they were thieves. The policeman died, and the inventor was sent to jail, convicted of manslaughter.