Walter R. Davis

Davis was born in Pasquotank County in poor, rural northeastern North Carolina, the youngest of seven children of modest farming parents.

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.

He also invested in real-estate projects in his home state, including Kildaire Farms in Cary, North Carolina, and Bald Head Island and Southern Shores along the N.C. coast.

An unlettered man himself, but always aware of the power of education, he rose to the rank of trustee at UNC-Chapel Hill, a post he held for 16 years, two of them as chairman of the board.

[4] Davis was also a major donor to the Dean Smith Center, 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 relief efforts.

[5] 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.