Gordon Davis
| Gordon J. Davis | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
August 7, 1941 Chicago, Illinois |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
Williams College (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.) |
| Occupation | Lawyer, Civic Leader |
Williams College (B.A.)
Gordon J. Davis, an active partner in the New York office of the law firm Venable LLP, was born in Chicago in 1941 and has been a resident of New York City since his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1967. Mr. Davis has been a prominent leader in New York City's public, civic, and legal affairs for four decades. He served under Mayor Ed Koch as the city's commissioner of parks and recreation and is considered one of the most successful parks commissioners of the post–Robert Moses era. He was one of the first African Americans to become a partner in a major New York corporate law firm (Lord Day & Lord, 1983). He is the founding chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center, one of the four founders of the Central Park Conservancy, a member of the first class inducted into the Lincoln Center Hall of Fame, a life trustee of the New York Public Library, a President Obama appointee to the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and an alumnus of Williams College, from which he also received an honorary degree.
Davis was born August 7, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois to parents William Allison Davis and Elizabeth Stubbs Davis. His father was the John Dewey Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Chicago and was the university’s first black tenured professor. The predominantly black neighborhood he grew up in fostered his interest in music, theater and poetry.
Davis attended Hyde Park High School in Chicago. He received his Bachelor of Arts in 1963 from Williams College, where he spearheaded Ivy League involvement in the Civil Rights Movement. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1967. At Harvard he authored two articles in the earliest issues of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. He married his Harvard Law School colleague Peggy Cooper Davis who is now the John S.R. Shad Professor of Lawyering and Ethics at the New York University School of Law.(nytlincoln) Their daughter Elizabeth Cooper Davis (1975) is an actor, scholar and social activist.
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