Walter Royal Davis (January 11, 1920 – May 19, 2008) was a Texas oil tycoon and philanthropist originally from

Elizabeth City, North Carolina Elizabeth City is a city in Pasquotank County, North Carolina, Pasquotank County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 18,629. Elizabeth City is the county seat and largest city of Pasquotank County. It ...

. He was also an influential figure in state politics and higher education. Davis Library, the main library at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

since it opened in 1984, is named for him, he having been a trustee at the university for 16 years. He died at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the age of 88. He also had a home in Midland, Texas.

Early life

Davis was born in

Pasquotank County Pasquotank County
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

Hargrave Military Academy Hargrave Military Academy (HMA) is a private, all-male, military boarding school located in the town of Chatham, Virginia. Hargrave is affiliated with the Baptist General Association of Virginia emphasizing Christian values that focuses on a col ...

in 1938. He supported himself with jobs in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, Roanoke, Virginia, and as a truck driver in California, eventually joining management at a trucking firm.

Businessman

In 1952, he moved to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, where he borrowed $1,000 to buy five trucks that could carry crude oil from wells in the Permian Basin to distant refineries. By the 1960s, this investment had grown into the Permian Corporation, a multimillion-dollar business and the world's largest independent petroleum transport company, with 1,100 employees, a tractor-trailer fleet of 550 vehicles and a strong presence in 15 oil states. After selling his company to Occidental Petroleum in 1966, Davis became the top executive after CEO

Armand Hammer Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an American business manager and owner, most closely associated with Occidental Petroleum, a company he ran from 1957 until his death. Called "Lenin's chosen capitalist" by the press, ...

, helping lead Occidental as the company developed the first oil wells in the Middle East. Davis broke with Hammer and started a second oil transport company, bought refineries, and invested in oil and gas drilling ventures and other businesses. He also invested in real-estate projects in his home state, including Kildaire Farms in

Cary, North Carolina Cary is a town in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is part of the Raleigh–Cary, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the 2020 Census, its population was 174,721, making it the seventh largest mun ...

, and Bald Head Island and

Southern Shores Southern Shores is a town in Dare County, North Carolina, United States. It is located on the Outer Banks and the population was 3,107 at the 2020 census. Geography Southern Shores is located at (36.124454, -75.732612). According to the United ...

along the N.C. coast. Permian was later sold to National Intergroup, a holding company created by

National Steel Corporation The National Steel Corporation (1929–2003) was a major American steel producer. It was founded in 1929 through a merger arranged by Weirton Steel with some properties of the Great Lakes Steel Corporation and M.A. Hanna Company with headquar ...

, in 1985. Six years later, in 1991, it was bought by

Ashland Inc. Ashland Global Specialty Chemicals Inc. is an American chemical company which operates in more than 100 countries. Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, the company traces its roots back to the city of Ashland, Kentucky, where it was headquarter ...

in a deal valued at $250 million and merged with

Scurlock Oil Company The Scurlock Oil Company was an American oil company, with headquarters located in Houston, Texas. History Founded in 1936 by Eddy C. Scurlock, the company was a tank car marketer of petroleum products. It emerged as an important transporter of ...

to create a subsidiary company known as Scurlock Permian Corporation. Ashland agreed to sell Scurlock Permian to

Plains All American Pipeline Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. is a master limited partnership engaged in pipeline transport, marketing, and storage of liquefied petroleum gas and petroleum in the United States and Canada. It owns interests in of pipelines, storage capacity ...

in 1999.

Philanthropist

Despite finding his tremendous success elsewhere, Davis never forgot the state of his birth, to which he returned in the 1970s. He became a great benefactor to North Carolina's environment and its institutions. An unlettered man himself, but always aware of the power of education, he rose to the rank of trustee of at UNC-Chapel Hill, a post he held for 16 years, two of them as chairman of the board. During this time he shared his hard-earned wealth in a number of ways, including establishing scholarships and helping the less advantaged earn degrees. It was also during this time, in the 1970s, that he successfully fought to claim $32 million in funds from the state legislature from the sale of the university's utilities. It is from these funds that Davis Library became a reality, as well as renovations to Wilson Library and the Health Sciences Library. His many gifts have provided funds for students, faculty, campus buildings, research and strategic initiatives such as the Davis Oral History Fund supporting scholarly works in the Southern Oral History Program, a component of the

Center for the Study of the American South The Center for the Study of the American South (CSAS) is an academic organization dedicated to the study of "southern history, literature, and culture as well as ongoing social, political, and economic issues" at the University of North Carolina ...

. Davis said that the reason why he worked so hard to provide higher education opportunities to others was that he never had that opportunity. Davis was also a major donor to the

Dean Smith Center The Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center (commonly known as the Dean Smith Center, Smith Center, or the Dean Dome) is a multi-purpose arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, used primarily as the home for the University of North Carolina at Ch ...

, which opened in 1986 and is still the home court of the UNC-Chapel Hill men's basketball team, and a scholarship program for students who agreed to teach in poor counties in northeastern North Carolina. In 1999 during a trustee meeting, then UNC-Chapel Hill student body president Nic Heinke asked his fellow board members to give a donation to

Hurricane Floyd Hurricane Floyd was a very powerful Cape Verde hurricane which struck the Bahamas and the East Coast of the United States. It was the sixth named storm, fourth hurricane, and third major hurricane in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. Floyd tr ...

relief efforts. Heinke passed around his baseball cap and came up with $400 in donations from trustees. When the hat got to Davis, he dropped in a check for $100,000. Then 79, Davis had to ask a fellow trustee to fill out the check because his eyesight was poor. He asked that the money go to displaced students at hard-hit East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. In the spring of 1999, Reyna Walters, student body president at UNC-Chapel Hill, chatted with Davis about her plan to earn money over the summer for a trip to Europe. He said he would make the trip happen, and soon after, a $10,000 check for Walters arrived from Davis. He was also known to leave five-thousand-dollar tips for struggling clerks and waitresses.

Honors

In 1994, Walter Davis was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal from the General Alumni Association of UNC-Chapel Hill. He has also been awarded the

William Richardson Davie William Richardson Davie (June 20, 1756 – November 29, 1820) was a Founding Father of the United States, military officer during the Revolutionary War, and 10th Governor of North Carolina, from 1798–1799. A member of the Federalist Part ...

Award from the UNC-Chapel Hill board of trustees, and in 2004 was the inaugural recipient of the Light on the Hill Award. Davis also served on the Duke University board of trustees, and was a member of the University of North Carolina board of governors for 10 years.

References

External links

Davis Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Walter R. 20th-century American businesspeople People from Pasquotank County, North Carolina 1920 births 2008 deaths 20th-century American philanthropists Hargrave Military Academy alumni