Professor Richard M. Davis

Professor Davis was born June 21, 1924 in Moose Lake Minnesota. In 1931 his parents moved to New York City and in 1933 to River Edge New Jersey, where he graduated from high school in 1942. Dr. Davis served in the Army Air Corps Pilot Training Program 1943 through 1945. Following his Army service he attended The Ohio State University, earning his BA in English in 1947 and his MA in English in 1948. From 1948 through 1951 he served on the faculty of the General Motors Institute. In 1951 he attended the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. He was an Administrative Analyst for the Ford Motor Co. 1952-53, a Procedures Analyst for General Motors 1953-55, and a Procedures Analyst for Champion Spark Plug Co. 1955-57. Dr. Davis received his Ed.D. in Technical Communications from the University of Michigan in 1962. He died on July 10, 2002.

Dr. Davis joined the AFIT faculty in September 1962 as an Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Humanities. He was promoted to Associate Professor in December of 1964, and to Professor in February of 1972. Dr. Davis was made the Department Head in 1981, and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1986. During his tenure at AFIT, Dr. Davis was an outstanding teacher. He received the Tau Beta Pi Outstanding Teacher Award in 1967 and was designated an outstanding teacher of the quarter at least three more times before 1981. Dr. Davis provided leadership in his service on faculty committees, including the Executive Guidance Counsel, and the Academic Standards Committee.

Also very active in national and local professional societies, he was an Associate Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and was three times the recipient of the Outstanding Article Award from the Society. At different times, he served as Chairman of the Research Committee and of the Committee on Certification, and also refereed articles for publication by the STC.

His other professional society memberships included: National Council of Teachers of English; College Conference on Composition; Association of Teachers of Technical Writing; Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Writing; and the American Business Writing Association. He was a senior member and National Director of the Dayton-Miami Valley Chapter of Society of Technical Writers and Publishers and of the National Society for Study of Communications.

Between 1962 and 1981 Dr. Davis had sixteen articles published in the general field of communications. In addition he authored the text, Thesis Projects in Science and Engineering: A complete Guide from Problem Selection to Final Presentation, published in 1980 by St. Martin's Press. Dr. Davis provided consulting services to the Aeronautical Systems Division and to the Foreign Technology Division.

Throughout his 22 ½ years of AFIT service, Dr. Davis was an outstanding teacher, educator and administrator. His skill in teaching technical communications enhanced the writing quality of student thesis and dissertations. His membership and service in a number of professional societies, along with his authorship of published research and a textbook served to enhance and spread the reputation of AFIT.