Distinguished alum, veteran inspires others to soar

Being prepared for every opportunity helped Walter Davis ’59 rise to the Navy’s second-highest rank. Now the retired vice admiral inspires future engineers and entrepreneurs to excel.

Since he was a kid, alumnus Walter Davis dreamed of being a pilot. An uncle who worked at North American Aviation in Columbus would send him pictures of airplanes. He was hooked.

“He sent a nice picture of a Navy FJ-3 Fury jet and I said, ‘I’d sure like to fly in one of those one day.’ So, I always had that in my mind that I’d love to fly,” Davis explained. “But I’d never flown, never even been in an airplane.”

Davis grew up in North Carolina during racial segregation—an era when, as he gently describes it, “all the opportunities weren’t open to everyone.”

After sharing his dream occupation in class one day, Davis’ teacher asked, “Have you ever seen a Black airline pilot?”

“No, sir,” Davis admitted. “But that’s what I want to do.”

The teacher suggested that since Davis was good at math, he become an engineer instead for better career security. Seeing the wisdom in that advice, Davis decided to pursue engineering.

But he never stopped wanting to fly.

At Ohio State, Davis majored in electrical engineering and joined the Navy ROTC. He lived in the Stadium Dorm during his first year on campus, and was inspired by the leadership of head football coach Woody Hayes and fellow students who were Korean War veterans and “came there with a purpose,” Davis said.

After graduating from Ohio State in 1959, Davis was commissioned into the Navy. Overcoming astigmatism in his eyes, he completed flight training in 1960 and became a naval aviator. Davis accumulated over 3,500 flight hours and 800 carrier landings as a fighter pilot, flying the F-4 Phantom—the world’s most powerful airplane at the time—and the F-14. He served two combat tours in Vietnam and later served a third in the Middle East. He also earned a bachelor’s in aeronautical engineering and master’s in aeronautical electronics from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Ready for every opportunity, Davis rose steadily through the Navy’s ranks. During his 37-year naval career, he was a test pilot, executive officer and commanding officer of fighter squadron VF-114, executive officer of the carrier USS Kitty Hawk, as well as commanding officer of the supply ship USS Sacramento and carrier USS Ranger.

“The neat thing about being in the military is you always see that job that you might like to have up ahead of you,” Davis said. “So you have to get inspired.”

Although his sea duty revolved around flying, Davis was able to employ his engineering background during his shore duty assignments. He served as the Navy’s engineer for the F-14 airplane and as the naval warfare IT architect. When he retired in 1997 at the rank of vice admiral, Davis was deputy chief of naval operations for space, information warfare, command and control directing the Navy’s information technology budget.

He was awarded more than 20 decorations, including the Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, 10 Air medals and the Gray Eagle Award, which recognizes the Navy’s longest-serving active duty flier.

Davis said the broad education he received as a Buckeye engineer was an asset throughout his career.

“I credit that engineering degree as a big reason for my success in the Navy. I believe I was a better aviator because of it, as well as a better officer,” explained Davis, who was named a distinguished alumnus of the College of Engineering in 1991. “That background gave me more duty options and further advanced education options. It led to challenging and rewarding Navy duties. It also led to my second passion which is getting more youth into engineering and STEM.” 

That passion for inspiring youth in STEM led to the launch of military mentoring programs, including one that invited hundreds of high school students to meet with active and retired officers. As chair of the BEYA Military Alumni Committee for 10 years, Davis directed the organization’s efforts to inspire youth to pursue STEM and assist veterans with transitioning to STEM careers.

Having an opportunity-focused outlook also benefitted Davis in his second career as vice president of business development for EvoNexus, a nonprofit technology startup incubator he co-founded in 2010.

In addition to his staff role, Davis serves on EvoNexus’ board and is part of the committee that selects and mentors startups. The San Diego-based incubator is financially supported by some of the largest multinational technology corporations in the world and has since launched more than 260 technology startups. But to get to that number, Davis said, they reviewed more than 5,000 applicants, inviting only the most viable to participate in EvoNexus’ two-year incubation program.

Davis’ parents and teachers were major influences on his success. His father worked two jobs to ensure his children could attend college and had a knack for putting things in perspective, Davis explained, especially regarding how to keep bigotry from negatively impacting his life. 

“Basically his lesson was, if you’re dealing with someone you don’t respect, don’t let them ruin your day. Don’t let them interfere in your life,” Davis said. “I carried that attitude with me through college and the rest of my career.”

by Candi Clevenger, College of Engineering Communications, clevenger.87@osu.edu