The Gordon Davis Family created this fund to highlight and honor the legacy of Gordon’s Great Grandfather, James S. “Cashup” Davis. Cashup had substantial interests and was widely regarded as a visionary with respect to a broad spectrum of issues that included promotion of the Palouse Country, crops, soil, livestock, water, wildlife, entrepreneurship, hospitality, small animals, engineering, leadership, strategic forward thinking, and the responsible and efficient use of cash in essentially all transactions- “cash-up!”.
He was a visionary and pioneer who was exceptionally competent, with a host of individuals writing about him (including distinguished WSU alumnus Randall Johnson, historian for Cashup for 50 years) and discussing his ideas and accomplishments over 100 years after his passing, in 1896. An endowment of this caliber, that of the Cashup Davis Family Endowed Dean, College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences, at Washington State University, will ensure that Cashup Davis will be the most widely recognized and well-known pioneer at WSU, in the Washington territory, and the Palouse Country.
Uses and Purposes
Distributions from this fund will support the pursuit of academic and research excellence and will bring honor to, and support agriculture, the human sciences and the land grant mission and societal impacts of CAHNRS and WSU.
The overarching objectives of the Cashup Davis Family Endowment are to support the family’s highest priority philosophies and key principles relating to the pursuit of excellence:
- Success begets success – keep winning;
- Transformation of key high level programs and projects;
- Creating a culture of philanthropy in CAHNRS, by inspiration through time, talent and treasure;
- Bestowing and endowing the Davis Family pursuit of excellence on all CAHNRS students.