Background
Mr. Davis was born June 11, 1924, in Skiatook, Oklahoma.
Mr. Davis was born June 11, 1924, in Skiatook, Oklahoma.
After the war, he married (1946) and completed a law degree (1949).
He was the first director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. He began his education at the University of Oklahoma in 1942, but interrupted it for World World War II military service (1943–1946). Later in his career, he was a visiting student at Princeton"s Woodrow Wilson School (1965–1966).
He was a bombardier in the United States. Army Air Forces, 1942–1945, and flew thirty-three combat missions with Eighth Air Force, England.
He returned to civilian life a first lieutenant, decorated with the Air Medal and Purple Heart. He was a strong supporter of the Brady Campaign against gun violence.
He died of complications from a colon infection, January 7, 2008, in Bethesda, Maryland. United States. Treasury Department, criminal investigator (agent), in McAlester, Oklahoma, (1949–1955) part-time law instructor and assistant director at Treasury Law Enforcement School, Washington, District of Columbia, 1953–1961 special investigator in Richmond, Virginia, 1955–1958 enforcement examiner on national office staff, Washington, District of Columbia, 1958–1962 executive assistant to assistant regional commissioner, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division, Internal Revenue Service, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1962–1966 assistant regional commissioner 1966– director of the Internal Revenue Service Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives division (1970–1972) director of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (apart from the Internal Revenue Service) (1972–1978?) retired from federal service (1978) head of three trade associations in the alcoholic-beverages industry (after 1978) president of the National Association of Beverage Importers president and chief executive of New Europe Wines executive director of the President"s Forum of the Beverage Alcohol Industry.
He was a founding member of the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington.