Robert Davis - 2005
MHS 1945 Graduate
Robert J. Davis, Jr., Class of 1945, was nominated to the Alumni Hall of Fame by his sister-in-law, Rose Marie Davis. During his childhood he was employed in and around Minerva as a milkman for the Lippincott Dairy, a delivery and stock boy for Brown's Grocery, a YMCA counselor, a custodian at R. C. Smith's Dry Goods, a laborer at Good Roads Machinery, and a postman.
After graduating from Minerva High School, he attended The Ohio State University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Personnel Management. In 1972 he received a Master’s of Arts degree in Urban Studies from Akron University.
During World War II, Davis served in the U. S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Mercer APB 39-Hospital Corps.
From 1949 to 1951, he was employed by the Minerva Wax Paper Company as assistant to the vice president of operations. In 1951, he went to the Ford Motor Company Forge Plant in Canton where he stayed until 1992. There he was Manager of Human Resources, and as such he had many different titles and jobs: Employment Interviewer; Suggestion Coordinator; Training Coordinator; Supervisor of Personnel Services; Labor Relations; Hourly Personnel; Salaried Personnel; and when Ford left Canton in 1988, he was named Coordinator of the Reemployment Assistance Center.
Davis has an extensive history of community service. He has served as deacon at Christ United Presbyterian Church and as an elder at Northminster Presbyterian. He was appointed and served four years on the Presbyterian Synod of Ohio Personnel Committee. Besides being on the board of directors of the United Way of Central Stark County, he served on the budget committee and as a campaign worker. From 1956 to 1962 he was on the board of directors of the Community Rehabilitation Clinic at Aultman Hospital. Davis has served six years on the Stark County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities and currently is an advisor on the Personnel Committee. He was a member of the Canton Toastmaster’s Club, and the president and founder of the Ford Toastmaster’s Club. He was a member of the North Canton Rotary and served on the United Cerebral Palsy Board. He was elected for two years as President of the North Canton Clearmont Elementary School's PTA. In 1959 he was elected President of the Canton Jaycees and served his term into 1960. At that time he was elected Chairman of the Canton Jaycees Board of Directors. During his presidency the Canton Jaycees received the Henry Giessenbrier Award as the Most Outstanding Jaycee chapter in Division IV in the state of Ohio. In 1960 Davis was inducted into the Jaycees International organization as a Lifetime Senator. In 1964 he received the "Town Crier's Bell" when he was elected Ford Citizen of the Year, awarded for outstanding service to the community.
Following his retirement from Ford in January 1992, he was elected president of the Ford Salaried Retirees Luncheon Club, and in 1999 he was appointed to the Hartville Meadows Human Rights Committee as a parent/guardian advocate. Davis is currently serving as treasurer of the Hartville Homes Inc. Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, providing housing and total care for the Mental Retarded and Developmental Disabled.
In May 1950 Davis married Wanda Park. They are now the parents of four daughters: Wendy, Heidi, Gigi, and Polly Anna, and they enjoy spoiling six granddaughters and one grandson.