Dr. Lawrence A. Davis Jr., the chancellor emeritus of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and the son of the longtime president of the preceding Arkansas AM&N College, has died. He was 85.
UAPB announced Davis Jr.’s death on social media Sunday, eight days after he served as grand marshal of the UAPB homecoming parade on Main Street.
Davis Jr. grew up living on the AM&N campus, where he attended primary and secondary school before graduating from Merrill High School in the Pine Bluff School District in 1954, according to archives.
His father, L.A. “Prexy” Davis Sr., was president of AM&N College from 1943 until 1972, when the college joined the University of Arkansas System and was given its current name. Davis Sr. remained as chancellor during the school’s first year in the university era before retiring.
Davis Jr. taught mathematics and physics at Mississippi Valley State University and at NASA before returning to UAPB to be a professor. The UA System elevated him to chancellor of UAPB in November 1991, and he remained in the role until his retirement in May 2012.
According to a 1998 profile in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Davis Jr. took over the university at a time when it was dealing with scandals involving finances, the security department, band and football team.
“We are going to be a no-excuse university,” Davis Jr. told the Democrat-Gazette. “What that simply means is, is that failure to succeed will not be because the university lacks any resources. And then what I’m saying to the public at large is that if you support UAPB and help us build this university so that it reaches its maximum potential, that we won’t ask for any special considerations. We will compete if we have the resources.”
In a biography written when he went into the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame, Davis Jr. was said to have made UAPB athletics one of his many “platforms,” making strides in the advancement and promotion of athletic programs. Golden Lion Stadium was built under his watch and opened during the 2000 season, as was the Torii Hunter Baseball and Softball Complex in 2011.
Under Davis Jr., UAPB moved up from the small-school National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics to NCAA Division I in 1997. Davis Jr. had worked to revive a football program that the NAIA shut down after the 1990 season due to 41 player eligibility rules violations, and in 1994 — the Golden Lions’ second year removed from dormancy — hosted the national championship game, which it lost to Northeastern State University of Oklahoma.
The Southwestern Athletic Conference inducted Davis into its hall of fame in 2012, the year the Golden Lions won the league’s championship game over Jackson State University in overtime.
Academically, according to an online bio, UAPB constructed three new academic buildings in the center of campus under Davis: Henderson-Young Hall, S.J. Parker 1890 Extension Complex and STEM Academy and Conference Center. Davis Jr. also oversaw renovation and construction of on-campus housing, as the Dawson-Hicks and Caine-Gilleland halls were opened.
A Facebook page called “UAPB/Arkansas AM&N-Through the Eyes of Lawrence A. Davis Jr.” was operated in his honor. Davis Jr. even highlighted his own accomplishments on the page in a January post, dating back to his graduation from Merrill High in 1954. He was a four-year basketball scholarship player and letterman at AM&N, earned the O’Bryant Award twice for having the highest grade-point average for an athlete, was named outstanding scholar for Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and served as volunteer assistant basketball coach in the 1960s.
Davis Jr. earned a bachelor’s degree in math from AM&N, a master of science degree from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, and a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Iowa State University. Davis Jr. also studied computer science at the University of Oklahoma, Brown and Harvard universities.
