DuPont Davis

1946 – 2010

By Jason King
Assistant Communications Director

Few county commissioners are referred to as walking encyclopedias of county government. DuPont L. Davis was one of those rare people. He seemed to know what was going on in every county and could engage in a deep conversation whether you were from urban Mecklenburg County or rural Gates County.

For veteran commissioners, he became a trusted friend. For those trying to spread their wings, he was a man of influence willing to share experiences and help make introductions. It was Davis' ability to connect with people that helped him become the Association's 86th president in 2002.

Davis, who served as a Hertford County commissioner for more than 21 years until his death on March 25, left behind a legacy that will be remembered in his home county and across the state.

"When I first became a commissioner, DuPont Davis was probably one of the first people who introduced themselves to me," said NCACC President Mary Accor, who was appointed to the Cleveland County Board of Commissioners in 1995. "He was quick to give you compliments and give you good wisdom, and he was very slow to criticize. I really respected that from him. He became a mentor to me as a commissioner.

"There wasn't anything you couldn't ask him that he didn't know. It didn't matter if it was about another county."

Cumberland County Chairman Billy King, who preceded Davis as NCACC president by six years, said Davis thrived in the role of mentor.

"He kind of took young commissioners under his wing and gave them advice," he said.

Person County Commissioner Ray Jeffers, the youngest commissioner in the state, said Davis impressed upon him the importance of knowing what's going on in other counties so that he could add to the conversation when talking with commissioners from across the state. At the recent NACo Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C., Jeffers and others spent time with Davis in his hotel room.

"He was very influential," Jeffers said of Davis. "I learned more in D.C. sitting there talking with him for two hours in his room, just talking about different current events and things that were going on, past things in counties, and what we needed to know and what we didn't. I learned more there than some of the session blocks I went to."

A lifelong Hertford County resident, Davis earned his nickname, "Pine" (short for pine box), from the business he established in 1972, the Davis Burial Vault Company. Long before he built his reputation on a statewide level, he earned respect locally in part for his willingness to help his fellow citizens. He won a seat on the Board of Commissioners in November 1988.

In addition to "Pine," his fellow commissioners came up with a number of nicknames for him through the years.

Davis receives counsel from former NCACC Executive Director Ron Aycock during the late Hertford County commissioner's term as president in 2002-03. "He had the ability to cut across party, regional and socioeconomic lines," Aycock said. "He created coalitions ... across the state." (NCACC file photo)

"We called him 'the King,'" said longtime friend and Hertford County Commissioner Howard Hunter III. "At his last meeting, he got labeled 'the Godfather.' I think he liked that."

Hunter and Bertie County Commissioner Lewis Hoggard are two of the many who counted Davis as a mentor. They also called him "Pops" because "he was like a father to us," Hoggard said.

Hoggard said that Davis, whom he called almost every Saturday morning, was the perfect type of positive influence a new commissioner needed.

"There might be something going on in Bertie County, and I would want to know how he would you answer that certain question," he said.

When Hunter decided to run for a seat on the Hertford Board of Commissioners, he let Davis know before telling his own father, the late State Rep. Howard Hunter II.

"After I won, he took me under his wing and he mentored me," Hunter said. "He taught me to listen first and to learn. I listened the first two years. He told me to be honest and do what's right for the people in the county; don't have a hidden agenda."

Davis' commitment to the citizens he represented made an impression on Ron Aycock, who was NCACC executive director when Davis was an Association officer.

"I visited Hertford County to meet with him shortly after he became president to help plan out the year," he said. "Everywhere we went, people were coming up to us. … It was obvious that the man was committed to his public service and the people appreciated what he did."

Claude Odom, who completed a two-term stay on the Hertford County board in 1986, remembered Davis as a dynamic individual and as a person who held to his beliefs, something that often carried over into Board of Commissioners meetings.

"He would not back off an issue," said Odom, who now serves as an area administrator for the N.C. Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. "He was as tenacious as a pit bull, and he would hang in there until he got the job done."

Davis shares a crowded seat with Bertie County's Norman Cherry and Cumberland County's Breeden Blackwell and Billy King during County Assembly Day in 2004. (Photo by Jason King)

That tenacity reared its head a number of times on issues he worked on as an Association officer. He was serving as the NCACC's second vice president in 2001 when Governor Mike Easley seized millions in business inventory tax reimbursements due to counties to help with a state budget crisis.

"He was fairly dogmatic particularly during that time," said longtime former NCACC field representative Robert Hester. "He didn't hold his feelings back at all. He thought it was wrong and let it be known.

"Coming from a rural, poor county, he was I think a spokesman for not just Hertford County but a lot of rural counties."

"He wouldn't hold his tongue for anybody," Hunter said. "He would tell you the truth. But he would tell you to help you."

In addition to holding a position on the NCACC's Executive Committee for five years beginning in 1999, he was three times appointed as an at-large member to the NCACC Board of Directors. He was also a sitting member of the NCACC Risk Management Pools Board of Trustees. Last October, Governor Beverly Perdue presented him with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

"The Association and county government has lost a giant in my opinion," King said. "He knew the ins and outs of government, no doubt about it. He was real sensitive to that. He came from a small county that was trying to have a progressive agenda."

Former Hertford County Manager David F. Thompson also worked with Davis in his current position as NCACC executive director.

"He has been an outstanding mentor to many of us in county government through his constant work in serving the citizens of not only Hertford County but the entire State of North Carolina," Thompson said.

Hunter said that Davis was not only a walking encyclopedia on county government, but also a walking Bible. He used a different parable from the Bible at almost every meeting of the Board of Commissioners, he said.

"There's nobody else that can fill those shoes," he said. "He left a legacy that cannot be touched."

As much as Davis enjoyed county government, King said nothing meant more to him than his wife, children and grandchildren. He made lasting friendships with many commissioners, and maintained a sense of humor that often helped diffuse the seriousness surrounding the tough issues that elected officials must deal with, according to Accor.

"The times he made us laugh. … The laughter is one of those things I'll always remember," Accor said. "Even now when I think about him I can't help but smile."