N&O: The Davis legacy

The News & Observer

May 22, 2008

Sometimes they knew, and sometimes they didn't, these people Walter Royal Davis treated to everything from ice cream to college educations. He was a big man who liked to live big, to give big.

One fellow trustee from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill -- Davis served on the board for 16 years -- recalled a day in 1999 when trustees heard an appeal to help victims of Hurricane Floyd. Davis, who didn't see well, asked this board member to write his check for a donation. "Make it for a hundred," Davis said. "A hundred dollars?" the trustee asked. "No," Davis said. "A hundred thousand."  Davis died Monday in Chapel Hill at the age of 88.  Click here to read more.