Originally from Scranton, Pa., Brad Davis ’61 joined Chi Phi with a few of his friends. While the house was the furthest out from campus at the time, he notes it was nice and there was a “good group of people and a good house mother.”His experience was filled with good people and good parties. He particularly remembers one event where the Kingston Trio headlined.
Other than Chi Phi, Davis was involved in Penn State sports, playing both baseball and basketball. He was also the advertising manager for the Daily Collegian, and a member of the “secret” honor society, Skull and Bones. He calls the entire Penn State experience a positive one, saying one of the best things about his Chi Phi experience was how his fraternity was one of his first steps toward leaving his hometown of Scranton, enabling him to meet people from around both Pennsylvania and the country.
Leaving Scranton for State College was hardly the biggest move of Davis’s life, though. He jumped around the country and the world following graduation, with an exciting career spanning decades.
Initially, Davis says he went into the army, serving in Huntsville, Ala. He then moved to New York City, to join Young & Rubicam, one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. His advertising work took him to test markets in Fort Wayne, Ind., all the way to Europe and the Middle East, to help with new Chemical Bank branches as the assistant to the director of marketing. Later in life, he linked up with Philip George (CHECK SPELLING OF NAME-GRAD YEAR), his former roommate, who was at the time a plastic surgeon in Miami, and, along with another friend, started up private equity firm Trivest. Davis opened a separate office in Chicago, before moving on to Ridge Capital Partners, an equity investment firm in Virginia, where he still remains.
Right now, Davis is also involved in a U.S. government project, with the goal of developing a permanent backup to the GPS system – a mission critical project for not only the government and military, but also commercial markets and consumers.
Even with all his zig-zagging around the world for work, Davis still finds time to return to campus, coming back last year to enjoy a ball game from a seat in the president’s box, and to rekindle his relationship with the College of Communications.
Finally, he offers some advice to the current Chi Phi’s, saying, “While you’re [in college], have some fun, but make sure you graduate and figure out what you want to do moving forward…Take advantage of opportunities and work your tail off at the same time.”