![Andrew Siebengartner
'03 excelled in the John Dewey Honors program and hopes to share his love of classical languages with the next generation of students and scholars.
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Dudley H. Davis '43
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01.18.05 $4.66 MILLION GIFT NAMES DUDLEY H. DAVIS CENTER, HONORS FAMILY TIES TO UVM
Dudley H. Davis '43 was a towering figure in Vermont's business community, a straight-shooting banker who began his career as an assistant cashier at Merchants Bank in 1946 and retired in 1994 after a phenomenal 36-year run as its president. Over that time, he provided the financial backing that gave rise to some of Vermont's biggest business success stories, including IDX Systems Corp. and Ben & Jerry's Homemade. He was also a generous benefactor of the University of Vermont.
Davis died on November 29, 2004, just days after his children announced a commitment to name the University's new student center the Dudley H. Davis Center in their father's honor. Spearheaded by a $4.66 million gift from the Davis family, the naming campaign has also to date secured over $1 million in commitments from businesses and individuals, leaving only $1 million yet to be raised toward the $7 million goal.
The Davis family gift was announced at a press conference on November 24 and was attended by all four of Dudley Davis's children, three of whom — Cheryl '69, Chuck '72, and Jeff '74 — are UVM alumni. The fourth, Kathleen, "made a wrong turn and went to Middlebury," joked family spokesperson Chuck Davis, a past member of the UVM Board of Trustees.
Davis said the gift and the naming of the student center is a fitting tribute to his father, given the family's strong and close ties to the University over many years, and said that UVM had provided them "a phenomenal learning experience." He said his father was "actively involved in the student center project for the past eighteen months and helped the design of this project become the basis for an incredible UVM facility."
President Daniel Mark Fogel thanked the family for their extraordinary generosity. The Davis family gift, he said, will help the University create a built space that will be at the heart of campus life for the community of scholars that define what a university is. He said the building will be a front door to UVM and to Burlington and is "the keystone of the vision for UVM's future."
More Dudley H. Davis Center information:
05.01.05 UVM CAMPUS CENTER NAMING OPPORTUNITIES ANNOUNCED