Philanthropist Kathryn Davis dies at 106

Kathryn Davis, philanthropist and longtime donor to the University together with her late husband Shelby Cullom Davis ’30, died at her home in Hobe Sound, Fla. last Tuesday, April 23. She was 106. Davis was an active philanthropist dedicated to the cause of international peace.

Davis graduated from Wellesley College and earned her master’s degree at Columbia University in 1931. She married Shelby Cullom Davis ’30 in 1932 and received her Ph.D. in international relations from the University of Geneva in 1934.

Davis was always interested in global affairs and wrote her dissertation about the Soviet Union and European affairs, according to a press conference released by the Davis International Center. She served as the ambassador’s wife in Switzerland from 1969 to 1975.

“She was very much a hostess,” Davis’ son Shelby Moore Cullom Davis ’58 said. “She had more parties and get-togethers for all age groups than I think any other ambassador in history in Switzerland.”

After the death of her husband in 1994, Davis focused her efforts on philanthropy and service. Davis served as a trustee of Wellesley College from 1984 to 2002, where she met Dean of Admission Janet Rapelye, who was the dean of admission at Wellesley at the time.

“Kathryn was remarkable. She was as open-minded, as youthful, as forward-thinking as someone half her age,” Rapelye said. “She was amazing, her intellect was sharp, she had a wonderful sense of humor and she really cared about international relations.”

Following the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Davis committed her philanthropy to the cause of furthering world peace. According to her son, her lifelong passion for world peace emerged from experiencing a century’s worth of international conflicts, from World War I to the Cold War.

“My mother cared deeply about the world, and she felt that there was a lot of senseless violence in the world,” he said. “She really wanted to focus on peace through individual efforts and learning to get along, sort of the Gandhi approach or Buddhist approach. That was her mission over many years.”

To commemorate her 100th birthday in 2007, Davis and her son created a $5 million endowment to the University's international center, which was renamed the Kathryn W. and Shelby Cullom Davis ’30 International Center. Davis thought that the Center reflected her mission of global learning and engagement with different cultures, according to director Jacqueline Leighton.

“She continued to tell every student and anyone working for organizations that she supported or was connected with to continue to fight for peace and not for war, to always prepare for peace in the world and not war,” Leighton said. “She was passionate about that.”

Davis also created Projects for Peace that year, a program that funds 100 student projects each summer aimed at increasing global understanding.

“She was just an amazing woman, and I just loved her. She was just so alive and totally with us,” former International Center director Paula Chow said.

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The Davis family will continue to support her projects for at least the next five years, according to Davis's son Shelby. They will also maintain their support for the Davis United World College Scholars Program, a scholarship available to UWC students from around the world to come study at U.S. colleges.

The UWC schools are a network of 12 international schools with students from around the world. Her son founded the scholarship program in 2000 with the encouragement of his mother. There are a number of Davis scholars currently attending Princeton.

“She didn’t really have an enemy in the world,” her son Shelby said. “I guess that would be her legacy. Everybody liked Kathryn Davis.”

Her memorial celebration will be held on May 21 in Davis Hall at International House New York.