Noah K. Davis

Noah Knowles Davis (1830–1910) was an American educator. He served as president of Bethel College in Kentucky. He taught at Delaware College, Howard College (now Samford University) and the University of Virginia.

Early life Noah Knowles Davis was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on May 15, 1830, to Mary (née Young) and Noah Davis. His father, who was a minister of the Baptist Tract Society, died shortly after Davis' birth. He was raised by his mother and step-father, the Reverend John L. Dagg, a Southern Baptist theologian in Alabama. Davis delivered a graduation address at Howard College in 1854. Later he taught.

Davis was elected president of Bethel College in 1868. In 1873, he also became chair of moral philosophy at the University of Virginia.

Legacy Davis influenced Collins Denny, a professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University who taught poet John Crowe Ransom.