William Conan Davis

William Conan Davis (August 22, 1926 - March 16, 2022) was a professor emeritus and was chair of natural sciences at St. Philip's College in San Antonio, Texas.

The William C. Davis Science Building is named in his honor.

He is best known for his research in food chemistry.

He discovered arabinogalactan and used it to create instant mashed potatoes.

His discoveries also improved potato chips and soft serve ice cream.

He developed an organic glue for use in particle board.

More recently, he co-developed the formula for Dasani water.

In addition to his scientific work, he was a Lutheran lay minister, served during the Korean War, and received the Purple Heart.

He was also famous for his skill in knife juggling.

William Conan Davis was born on August 22, 1926, in Waycross, Georgia to Kince Charles Davis and his wife Laura Jane (née Cooper; July 9, 1898 – June 6, 2004).

Kince Davis' family were of Ethiopian Jewish descent, and he read Hebrew but not English.

Kince Davis was employed as a railway construction engineer and crew boss, a position that brought him threats from the Ku Klux Klan.

He later started a herbal medicine business, the only source of medical care accessible to many black people in Georgia.

William Davis spent time during the summers with his maternal grandfather Jonnas Franklin, a Sioux Indian who farmed and hunted near the Okefenokee Swamp.

William Davis attended Magnolia Grammar School and Dasher High School in Valdosta, Georgia.

He received a high school diploma from Dasher in 1944.

His family was active in civil rights and supportive of their children's education.

On one occasion Kince Davis drove his sons William and Kenneth To Tuskegee Institute (a distance of 300 miles in a Tin Lizzie) to attend a workshop with George Washington Carver and Henry Ford.

This experience fueled William's interest in becoming a chemist.

Dasher High School did not teach at a college preparatory level, leaving William at a disadvantage in science and mathematics.

To prepare him for college, William's family sent him to New York City in 1944.

He lived with his older brother, actor and civil rights activist Ossie Davis.

He attended Dwight High School, taking preparatory classes in science and graduating in 1945.

William Davis briefly attended the City College of New York, but was advised to transfer to Talladega College in Alabama where he could get more individual support in calculus.

Davis was enrolled in the U.S. Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps.

During his first year at Talladega, he was drafted to serve in the Korean War.

He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

He served in Germany and was awarded a Purple Heart in 1953.

On his return, Davis completed his B.S. degree in chemistry at Talladega College, graduating in 1956.

He was one of three students chosen for a George Washington Carver research fellowship to attend Tuskegee Institute in 1956.

At the time, it was almost impossible for a black scientist to train for a professional career in research in the United States.

Even at Tuskegee, the usual career track was to train as a teacher, with a specialization in one's area of interest.

Davis was determined to do research.

He worked with Clarence T. Mason of Tuskegee and studied the hydrolysis rate of compounds in jet fuel.

This research enabled him to meet Wernher Von Braun of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Davis received his Master of Science degree in organic chemistry from Tuskegee in 1958.

It was extremely difficult for a black student to find support for a Ph.D. program in research.

The University of Idaho was the only university willing to accept Davis as a research-track graduate student.

Davis and his wife Ocia moved to Moscow, Idaho.

Perhaps not surprisingly, given this location, his thesis research involved potatoes.