Jim Davis was born and raised in Prescott, Arkansas. He met his future wife, Marsha, when they were both undergraduate students at Henderson State University. Davis graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant through the R.O.T.C. program. After serving two years as a commissioned officer on active duty in the U.S. Army, Davis received an honorable discharge and used the benefits of the G.I. Bill to attend the U of A.
Davis graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, while Marsha finished her Bachelor of Science in Education. He worked for Southwestern Bell and ITT Telecommunications. In 1982, Davis joined a small group of engineers who wanted to design a cellular telephone system for small and rural areas. With just pencils, paper and one copy of the Bell Labs’ IS-3B Cellular Specification, the four engineers astonished everyone by creating the fifth cellular system in the country in record time and with only 10 local investors.
Since then, Jim led a team that developed the first cellular system in Russia, and helped start three companies. His work has resulted in six patents. After working with engineers all over the world, Jim knows that the U of A equipped him with the skills he needed to succeed in a global context. He especially appreciated the encouragement of two of his professors, Jim Gattis and Neil Schmitt. In 2011, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Engineering.
Davis is now the retired co-founder and vice president of operations for Celcore Inc. Of all the things he has accomplished during his career, what Jim values the most is helping bring cellular phone service to places like the British Virgin Islands, South America, Africa, Russia, Madagascar, Colombia and Greenland. He explained that “many people in some of those isolated areas had never made a telephone call of any kind until our system brought the latest in cellular technology to their mountaintops, their frozen lands and their jungles.”
The Davises have established a graduate student fellowship in the College of Engineering with a $150,000 gift. The Jim and Marsha Davis Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Electrical Engineering will be awarded to a graduate student who assists the Department of Electrical Engineering’s undergraduate students in learning electrical engineering design. “We want to do our part to help enhance and reinforce the 21st century vision for the future of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the U of A,” Jim Davis said. “Seeing the level of commitment to set even higher goals for the department motivated us to give back just a small portion of what the University of Arkansas gave to us. We hope our commitment might encourage other alumni to consider giving back to the university as well.”