| Record Group | 032-08-15 |
| Department or Office: | Board of Trustees |
| Title: | Mary E. Davis Papers |
| Dates: | 1958-1972 |
| Size: | 6.25 cubic feet. |
| Arrangement: | Organized in alphabetical order by subject title of file folder. Chronological arrangement. |
| History: | Mary Ellen (O’Connor) Davis was born on March 28, 1923 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Her early childhood years were spent in Ohio. After her parents died in 1930 she relocated to California. In 1954, she graduated from the University of California Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. The following year she attended Law School at UCLA but did not graduate. In 1956, Ms. Davis became editor of the Tacoma Star. Her husband, Frederick W. Davis, was an administrative engineer for Weyerhaeuser and served as director of Potlatch Forests, Inc. They had six children together. She was appointed by Governor Albert D. Rosellini as a Board of Trustee member at Central Washington State College in 1960. She served through 1968, ultimately as chair. The same year as her appointment, Ms. Davis was Public Information Director for the Washington State Legislature's Citizens' Study of Education in Washington State, which later gave rise to the Interim Committee on Education. From 1961 to 1964, she was an advisor to the Interim Committee on Education as part of its Higher Education Subcommittee. As a Central trustee, Ms. Davis participated in the Association of Governing Boards of State Colleges and Universities, and from 1963 to 1968 she was a member of the Association of Governing Boards of State Colleges and Universities Educational TV Committee. Ms. Davis is retired and presently resides in Kirkland, Washington and Wailua, Kauai. |
| Contents: | The collection contains the personal files of Mary Ellen Davis that relate to her serving as a Board of Trustee member of Central Washington State College (presently Central Washington University) from 1959 to 1968. The collection consists of correspondence, reports, memorandums, etc. produced or received by Ms. Davis during her years as a board member. Included in the files are Board of Trustee agendas, meeting minutes and notes kept by Ms. Davis (1960-1968), building plans and campus construction records, reports on faculty and classified staff activities, annual reports from college divisions, correspondence and meeting minutes of the Interim Committee on Education (1959-1964), Joint Board of Trustees meeting minutes and notes (1960-1968), Student Government Association meeting minutes (1964-1968), reports from the Teacher Education Program (1961-1965) and various committee and sub-committee meeting minutes and notes. Other files worth noting are those on the Gus Hall Affair, Civil Rights and Student Demonstrations, Freedom of Speech Policies, Drug Scandals and Union Activities on campus. |
| Restrictions: | Open to the public for educational research. |