Archie Davis

Archie K. Davis was Chairman of Wachovia Bank & Trust Co. from 1956 to 1974. He served as Chairman of The Duke Endowment’s Board of Trustees from 1975-1981. He was instrumental in creating North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park and incorporating the National Institute for the Humanities within it. The Winston-Salem, N.C., native served two terms as a state senator and was president of both the American Banking Association and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. When he was elected to the Endowment’s Board in 1972, then-Board Chair Thomas Perkins said Davis “will be able to draw upon a rich background of knowledge and wisdom … from his years of experience as a civic, philanthropic and business leader.” A serious student of history, he received a master’s degree in the subject after retiring from banking, and did extensive research on a North Carolina man who became a Confederate Army colonel at age 20 and died leading a doomed charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.