In 1928, the family moved to the campus of Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, New Jersey, upon the appointment of Harvey Davis as the college's president.

Davis resigned from the latter post over a policy difference with then-Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, regarding covert action in Angola.

President Gerald Ford approved the program on July 18, 1975, despite strong opposition from officials in the State Department, including Davis, and the CIA.

Two days prior to the program's approval Davis told Henry Kissinger, the Secretary of State, that he believed maintaining the secrecy of IA Feature would be impossible.

Davis correctly predicted the Soviet Union would respond by increasing its involvement in Angola, leading to more violence and negative publicity for the United States.

Mulcahy believed the Ford administration could use diplomacy to campaign against foreign aid to the Communist People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), refuse to take sides in factional fighting, or increase support for the FNLA and UNITA.

In 1977, Davis moved to Newport, Rhode Island, where he taught at the Naval War College for six years as Diplomat in Residence.

[9][10] During his time at Harvey Mudd College, he wrote a book, using research he had been working on since 1947, which had also been the basis for his doctoral dissertation, called A Long Walk to Church: a Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy.

[11] Davis was a skier and had awards and accomplishments in white water canoeing and mountain climbing, most notable of which was a "first ascent" of Mount Abanico in the Venezuelan Andes with George Band.