Gordon Davis

Gordon J. Davis
Parks Commissioner of New York City
In office
January 23, 1978 – April 1, 1983
Appointed byEd Koch
Preceded byJoseph P. Davidson
Succeeded byHenry Stern
Personal details
Born
Gordon Jamison Davis

(1941-08-07) August 7, 1941 (age 83)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Spouse
Peggy Cooper Davis
(m. 1968)
Children1
EducationHyde Park High School
Francis Parker School
Alma materWilliams College (BA)
Columbia University
Harvard University (JD)
OccupationLawyer, Civic Leader

Gordon Jamison Davis (born August 7, 1941) is an American lawyer and civic leader. He was born in Chicago in 1941 and has been a resident of New York City since his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1967,[1] and has been a leader in New York City's public, civic, and legal affairs.[1] He was Mayor Ed Koch's first New York City Parks Commissioner[1] and is considered New York's most successful parks commissioner since the Robert Moses era.[2] Since 2012, Davis has been a partner in the New York office of the law firm Venable LLP.

Davis was one of the first African Americans to become a partner in a major New York corporate law firm (Lord Day & Lord, 1983).[1][3] He is the Founding Chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center,[1][4][5] one of the four Founding Trustees of the Central Park Conservancy,[1] a Founding Member in the first class inducted into the Performing Arts Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center,[6] a Life Trustee of the New York Public Library,[7] an appointee of President Barack Obama to the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,[1][8] and a recipient of an honorary degree (LL.D.) and the Bicentennial Medal from his alma mater, Williams College.[1]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Gordon J. Davis". The HistoryMakers. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Luo, Michael (August 27, 2008). "Top Black Donors See Obama's Rise as Their Own". The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
  4. ^ "Leadership". Jazz at Lincoln Center. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  5. ^ Aaron Bryant, "Business of Fine Arts," Black Enterprise, November 1, 2014.
  6. ^ "Lincoln Center to Create First-Ever Hall of Fame all of the Performing Arts," Lincoln Center Press Release, January 22, 2016
  7. ^ "Board of Trustees". New York Public Library. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  8. ^ "President Obama has nominated Gordon J. Davis, Fred Eychaner, Charles B. Ortner and Penny Pritzker to serve on the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts". Hill. October 1, 2010.