14 IGNITION
Members of the Davis Family at Lake Claire: Bill and Mary Jo’s son Jody, daughter-in-law Kathy Davis (right) and granddaughters Karen Griffin and Kate Allen
Founding family. IN 1963, WHEN THE NEWLY CONCEIVED FLORIDA Technological University urgently needed land for a campus, 89 visionary Orlando residents put up nearly $1 million of their own resources to help acquire the 1,227 acres of scrub and cypress east of Alafaya Trail that would become today’s UCF. Among those 89 founders were Mary Jo and William Davis, who lived just across Alafaya and financed a land
exchange that was key to acquiring essential property and the right of way for the campus. “We realized how important having a university here would be for the region,” Mary Jo, now 98, says. Over the decades, the Davises — Mary Jo, Bill and their children — have remained steadfast friends to the university. Bill, who passed away in 1998, and Mary Jo both served in the 1970s as members of the UCF Foundation board of directors, and the family has given generously to a wide variety of areas. In 2016, the Davises made a new commitment to establish several endowed funds, including the William E. and Mary Jo Davis Lake Claire Recreation Area Endowment to support the operation of the recreation area. To honor the family’s extraordinary generosity to UCF, the recreation area at Lake Claire — where UCF students enjoy paddling, beach volleyball and a variety of other activities — was officially dedicated in their names during a January 2017 ceremony. “You have our deepest gratitude for all that you have done — and continue to do — to advance the great university that your family helped to establish,” UCF President John C. Hitt told the gathered family that morning.
igniteucf.org