Curtis Lee Davis, Sr.

Curtis Lee Davis, Sr. born in Vancleave on September 15, 1927, served the institution now called Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College for 41 years and seven months – the 20th century record. His association with the institution began even before his service. On January 27, 1947, after finishing a hitch in the U.S. Navy, during which he finished high school, Davis enrolled in Perkinston Junior College. W.D. Smith, his mechanical drawing instructor, who was nearing retirement, urged Davis to get a degree in industrial arts. Should he wish to follow the advice, Smith said he would recommend Davis as his replacement. Davis graduated from Perk on August 6, 1948, went to Mississippi State, where he earned a degree in industrial arts, and three days later on June 1, 1950, returned to Perkinston to sign a 12-month contract as a vocational-industrial instructor. Because he had played tennis at Mississippi State, Davis was given the privilege of coaching the tennis team. In his words, “I taught, coached and drove a bus all over the state for $3,000.” In summing up his nine seasons as a tennis coach, Davis said that his men and women “played 72 matches, lost two, tied two, and won seven state championships.” On October 28, 1999 that enviable record won him induction into the inaugural class of the Mississippi Gulf Community College Athletic Hall of Fame. For his contributions as a tennis coach the National Junior College Athletic Association inducted Davis into the NJCAA Athletic Hall of Fame on May 14, 2001. For the same reason the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges inducted Davis into the MACJC Sports Hall of Fame in 2008. On April 2, 2009, Jackson County officials honored Davis by dedicating the Curtis Davis Courts in the Vancleave Tennis Complex. The six concrete courts stand near the site of the dirt court Curtis Davis played on as a youngster. Eleven and one-half months after becoming an instructor and tennis coach at Perk, the vocational-technical director of the institution resigned, and those duties were added to Davis’ load. As the decade of the 1950s wore on, he spearheaded the expansion of the college’s evening program at various installations along the Coast, particularly in the realm of training licensed practical nurses. Mainly through his efforts, the college added an Associate Degree Nursing program in May 1960. Then on May 10, 1962, with the establishment of the tri-campus Mississippi Gulf Coast Junior College District, Davis stepped up to the position of MGCJC district vocational-technical coordinator. After the selection of the sites for the two new Coast campuses (Jefferson Davis Campus at Handsboro and Jackson County Campus at Gautier), the MJCJC Board of Trustees, on January 22, 1964, named Davis as dean of the coming of the Jackson County Campus. Over the next year and a half, he supervised the construction of both Coast campuses and continued to coordinate all the vo-tech programs of the whole institution. From September 7, 1965, until his retirement December 31, 1991, Davis guided the Jackson County Campus. In that period, the campus grew from three buildings serving 250 full-time day students to an 11-structure complex serving more than five times that many full-time, plus thousands of part-time students, mostly resulting from the college’s alliance with Ingalls Shipbuilding. In looking back over his remarkable career in an interview conducted at the time of his retirement, Davis named his role in the establishment of the Coast campuses as his highest accomplishment. Then he named two other achievements nearly as great – his role in forging the alliance between the college and Ingalls Shipbuilding and his role in the establishment of the Licensed Practical Nursing and Associate Degree Nursing programs of MGCCC. Because it was his first and only full-time job, Davis said he had nothing with which to compare his career at the college. Be that as it may, few men’s accomplishments compare with his. In recognition of his contributions, the college awarded him the prestigious Sam Owen Trophy at the 1994 Homecoming. This award is the institution’s highest honor for distinguished service. On August 16, 2005, the Health and Physical Education Building at the Jackson County Campus was named in honor of Davis. Mr. Davis is preceded in death by his first wife, Helen Griffin Davis; son, John Edwin "Jed" Davis; parents, Samuel Earl and Ada Davis; sister, Hazel Vaughn; and brother, Leo Davis. Survivors include his wife, Cynthia "Sis" Mallett Davis; 1 daughter, Eleanor Anne Bass of Vancleave; 3 sons, Curtis Davis, Jr. of Vancleave, James T. "Jimmy" (Jill) Davis of Vancleave and Gordon Kym Davis of Ocean Springs; 10 grandchildren, Jeremy (Sharon) Bass, Summer (Wes) Inman, Heather Wade, Ashley (Jeremy) Bowen, Erica Davis, Crystal Davis, Johnny (Blair) Davis, Kimberly (Nick) Moody, Jillian Davis, Emily Davis; and 13 great-grandchildren, Autumn Bass, Bailey Bass, Wesley Inman, Ali Wade, Madison Bowen, Mackenzie Bowen, Huxley Bell, Hunter Bell, Harleigh Bell, Rayelin Davis, Anna Marie Davis, Jaxton Davis and Harper Moody; and 6 step-children, Martha E. Davis, Lewis E. Faulk, Susan P. Flurry, Charles D. Faulk, Cynthia "Sissy" Inabinette and Ronald "Ronnie" Faulk. Visitation will be held on Monday, March 26, 2012 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. and on Tuesday, March 27, 2012 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., with a 12 p.m. service, all at First Baptist Church of Vancleave. Interment will follow at Vancleave #2 Cemetery. The Vancleave Chapel of Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. In lieu of flowers the family would perfer donations to go to the Curtis Lee Davis, Sr. Memorial Scholarship Fund at MS Gulf Coast Community College, Perkinston, MS.