I. G. Davis

Irving Gilman Davis (1885–1939) was an American educator and agricultural economist who taught at the University of Connecticut (UConn; then Connecticut Agricultural College) from 1915 to 1939. He served as Professor of Economics and department chair starting in 1919.

Early life and career Davis was born on April 25, 1885, in Poland, Maine, to John Gilman and Juniata (Dunn) Davis. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Bates College in 1906. He served as high school principal in Cotuit (1906–07) and Shrewsbury (1907–09) in Massachusetts.

Davis resigned to study agriculture at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, completing his studies but suffering health problems that necessitated a lengthy recuperation at the family home in Maine. Resuming teaching in 1912, he taught at the Brimfield Vocational Agricultural School (1913–15).

Davis took time throughout his academic career to pursue graduate education. He spent the summers of 1924 and 1925 taking graduate coursework in economics at the University of Wisconsin. He went on sabbatical in 1929–30 to pursue studies at Harvard University and finally earned his PhD in economics from Harvard in 1937 at the age of 51. In the 1930s, Davis chaired the agriculture advisory committee of the Social Science Research Council. The state assembly adjourned for a day to commemorate Davis's death.