This paper attempts to provide a bird's eye view of the late Prof. Alan Davies' (my former teacher) important contribution to Applied Linguistics, a field of study which was, at the time this author had the opportunity of getting to know him, still very much a burgeoning field in the throes of establishing itself as a discipline in its own right. As I look back down the Memory Lane, I draw attention to his uncanny ability to tease out the intricacies of major issues that have haunted researchers for a number of years, bring fresh insight into every one of these issues and, most importantly, encourage his students to carry the torch further and cultivate their own independent ways of thinking. © 2016.