Background
Arthur Vining Davis was born on May 30, 1867 in Sharon, Massachusetts. He was the son of Perley B. Davis, a Congregational minister, and Mary Frances.
Arthur Vining Davis was born on May 30, 1867 in Sharon, Massachusetts. He was the son of Perley B. Davis, a Congregational minister, and Mary Frances.
After attending school at Hyde Park, Massachussets, and Roxbury Latin School in Boston, Davis entered Amherst College, graduating in 1888.
Davis' major responsibility was to promote the manufacturing and selling of quality aluminum products: Alcoa's Wear-Ever line of cookware was sold by college students recruited each spring; Alcoa made aluminum wire as an electrical conductor when copper-wire producers refused to do so; and aluminum horseshoes, bicycles, covers for bottles, canteens, and ships, and the Wright brothers' airplane engine were evidence of the metal's versatility.
But these years were also highlighted by confrontations with the government over antitrust issues. In 1912, the Justice Department charged Alcoa with three counts of violation of the antitrust laws; within a few weeks, the company signed a consent decree. In 1922, the company underwent investigation by the Federal Trade Commission, but the case was dismissed in 1930. In 1937 the Justice Department began an extensive antitrust case against Alcoa. This one was conspicuous for its duration and for Davis' extraordinary performance on the witness stand. Davis was the star witness, testifying for six weeks and contributing over 2, 000 pages of testimony. In dismissing the petition of the Justice Department, the trial judge praised Davis, who also drew accolades from his Alcoa colleagues for having personally won the company's case.
Because Davis cherished privacy, his personal success was not accompanied by much exposure to the media about his business or private life.
Before retiring from Alcoa, Davis began a second career by investing primarily in The Bahamas and Florida. The investments included extensive real estate holdings in the Miami area and on Cuba's Isle of Pines (he was said to own one-quarter of the island before his property there was nationalized by the government of Fidel Castro when Fidel Castro came to power), as well as ownership or control of some thirty Florida enterprises ranging from dairy farms to resort hotels. The rapid acquisition and size of the investments resulted in considerable publicity and additional controversy with the government, this time with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Davis died in Miami, leaving a $400-million estate. Only a small portion of his wealth went to individuals. The majority went to a trust he had established in 1952 and to Arvida (from ARthur VIning DAvis), a northern Quebec model town he had founded in 1927 for working families. The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations provide financial assistance to educational, religious, cultural, and scientific institutions, and are regular PBS donors.
Awarded the Presidential Certificate of Merit for ensuring that the government had adequate supplies of aluminum in World War II, Davis built Alcoa into an industrial giant. He also amassed great wealth as the company's largest stockholder, thereby provoking continued personal confrontation with Washington. At the time of his retirement from Alcoa in 1957, he was listed as the third-richest individual in the world.
Because Davis cherished privacy, his personal success was not accompanied by much exposure to the media about his business or private life. He did not usually fare well in his rare interviews. "I've had to work hard all my life, " he asserted to a reporter. "I've had to work sixteen hours a day to make a good living. Do you work sixteen hours a day?"
As an engineer he had a fine technical equipment and was an excellent executive.
Quotes from others about the person
Time magazine referred to Davis as a "terrible-tempered tycoon ruling [Alcoa] with desk-thumping autocracy, " a view that was not atypical in the press at large.
Davis married Florence Holmes in 1896. She died in 1908. In March 1912 he married Elizabeth Hawkins Weiman, who died in 1933. He had no children.
