Empire Family Business

COB alum Mark Davis ’63 helped build a family business empire in Southern Minnesota, starting as a milk truck driver in the 1950s.

Humility is probably not a common trait for those who have made the Forbes list of Richest Families. But nonetheless, Mark Davis ’63 would likely be the last to brag about his business success.

On building a family empire from scratch that has included owning Davisco Foods International, Cambria countertops, and Sun Country Airlines and refusing to retire: “I don’t believe in retirement. I can’t imagine it. I get my grass mowed without missing any work, and I have a walk-behind.”

On choosing to continue to live north of St. Peter when so many peers choose a warmer climate this time of year: “Oh, I like the weather, like this morning,” Davis joked about the 18 inches of snow that fell in late February. “I’ve always lived here except for a very short period of time. Our businesses have been headquartered here. Our families have been here since the 1850s.”

And on donating $250,000 to the College of Business with an agriculture and food focus over the last 10 years: “Well, I’ve got several bad habits,” Davis joked. “Why give? I just do. I make donations on an annual basis to organizations that I like to support.”

“He is so down to earth, so common, and yet what he has accomplished is so extraordinary,” Dean Flannery said. “There’s been so much impact on our region by Mark and so many business leaders who have been mentored by him.”

Davis, who graduated from Minnesota State Mankato in 1963 with a degree in business administration, said it’s always been important to him to stay connected to the University, where he’s maintained strong connections with University presidents (past and present), as well as COB leaders like Dean Flannery.

Dedicating his giving to agriculture and food has to do with his family’s business roots, he said – roots that run deep and wide in Southern Minnesota.

In 2001, the Davis family began Cambria in Le Sueur; they purchased Sun Country Airlines in 2011, which they later sold; and they operate Davis Family Dairies (which is in the process of being sold). All of this led to the family making the 2015 Forbes list of richest American families. The magazine listed the family’s net worth at $1.7 billion.

And yet, Davis still mows his own lawn and blows his own snow.

Dean Flannery said these surprising nuances about Davis have been fun to learn during the course of their long friendship. She remembers visiting him and finding him surrounded by stacks of books and old family photos and wearing beat-up old Birkenstocks.

“He’s been a really important teacher to me. He’s taught me a lot about ag and food. He’s taught me a lot about Southern Minnesota,” Dean Flannery said.

The Davis family has given back to the community in numerous other ways. Davis has been a board member of and donor to the Minnesota State Mankato Foundation, has been a major donor to Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Minnesota Historical Society, and Camp Cambria (for children with juvenile arthritis), among others; and has provided millions of dollars in scholarships.

The scholarships that go toward the education of young men and women entering the food and ag workforce are especially meaningful to Davis, he said.

“We’ve got to have good, capable, qualified people (in these fields), and that’s through education,” he said.

Truly exemplifying the philosophy of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps,” Davis was selected as a 2016 Horatio Alger Award winner. The prestigious award honors leaders who have faced adversity and yet succeeded, and who are committed to philanthropy and higher education.

The following year Davis was the keynote speaker for the COB’s Richard Schmitz Food Entrepreneurship Series, which he said was especially meaningful. With many of his family members sitting in the front row, Davis’ down-to-earth nature engaged the crowd as he talked about the early days of driving a milk truck at his father’s creamery and how they built such successful family businesses together in the decades that followed.