{"id":24098,"date":"2023-11-06T18:55:22","date_gmt":"2023-11-06T18:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/?p=24098&post_type=story"},"modified":"2023-11-08T23:19:42","modified_gmt":"2023-11-08T23:19:42","slug":"the-land-before-ucfs-time","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The Land Before UCF’s Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Jody Davis was just a young teenager, he remembers Alafaya Trail as a clay road that would wash out anytime a major storm came through east Orlando. Oviedo, Florida, had just one blinking traffic light, and much of the land near what is now UCF\u2019s main campus belonged to his parents, Mary Jo and Bill Davis. One of Jody\u2019s first jobs was there \u2014 he would saddle up horses at their ranch and charge visitors $2 an hour for horseback rides.<\/p>\n

This was in the early 1960s and just a few short years later, east Orlando would drastically change. In 1963, UCF was founded with the help of 89 individuals, including Mary Jo and Bill, who collectively donated $1 million to acquire 1,227 acres to build the university. The Davises helped ensure that land would be contiguous.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s a town that\u2019s becoming important in the world and it didn\u2019t have a public university. My parents took the chance to get involved in that,\u201d says Jody, adding that his mother loved real estate and conceptualizing ideas for different patches of property.<\/p>\n

Mary Jo and Bill owned 500 acres right across the street from where the new university would be located. That area now holds Siemens, The Quadrangle Business Park and numerous companies. When they learned that owners of land across Alafaya Trail \u2014 right in the heart of what is now the main campus \u2014 didn\u2019t want to sell, the Davises swapped about 90 acres of their land to acquire it.<\/p>\n

They immediately donated it to the creation of the university because they believed in the potential a major public university had to transform Orlando.<\/p>\n

The Davises\u2019 involvement in the birth of UCF didn\u2019t stop there. Mary Jo and Bill had been in the drugstore business since 1946, and in the 1960s they had a store on the corner of Orange Avenue and Church Street in downtown Orlando. When Charles Millican was named UCF\u2019s first president, the Davises quickly befriended him and offered him an area of the drugstore to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the corner on the second story, my dad had his desk,\u201d Jody says, \u201cand there was Charlie Millican, sitting there making calls and starting the university.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the university opened its doors, Mary Jo and Bill remained regular donors.<\/p>\n

While both Mary Jo and Bill have since died, Jody, who is the father of College of Business<\/a> graduate Katherine Davis Allen \u201901MBA<\/strong>, and his siblings have continued their family\u2019s legacy of giving to UCF<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Allen, who is a successful business-woman, credits earning a graduate degree at UCF to helping her advance in her field, and she knows the value of investing in other students.<\/p>\n

\u201cUCF had some incredible teachers who were able to bridge real life with book learning that contributed to my growth as a person and professional,\u201d Allen says. \u201cI continue to contribute to UCF because it contributed to who I am, and I am proud of what [UCF] is achieving.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2016, the Davises established several endowed funds, including one that supports campus activities in the William E. and Mary Jo Davis Recreation Area at Lake Claire. Jody is a regular donor of that endowment to honor his parents. The Davises have also given to several business and medicine scholarship funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t have an education and ability to communicate with one another, your chances of making it in the world are slim,\u201d says Jody, who\u2019s committed to continuing the philanthropy that his parents started. \u201cYou know you\u2019re helping give people a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":24285,"template":"","categories":[1588],"tags":[324,1432,1452],"class_list":["post-24098","story","type-story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-impact","tag-college-of-business","tag-philanthropy","tag-ucf-alumni","issues-fall-2023"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Land Before UCF's Time<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the early 1960s, the Davis family became one of the first donors to the University of Central Florida \u2014 and remain so today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Land Before UCF's Time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the early 1960s, the Davis family became one of the first donors to the University of Central Florida \u2014 and remain so today.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pegasus Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-08T23:19:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/4\/files\/2023\/10\/Pegasus-Fa23-Social-FB-LandBeforeTime-1200x630-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Land Before UCF's Time\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"In the early 1960s, the Davis family became one of the first donors to the University of Central Florida \u2014 and remain so today.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/4\/files\/2023\/10\/Pegasus-Fa23-Social-TW-LandBeforeTime-1600x900-1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/\",\"name\":\"The Land Before UCF's Time\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/4\/files\/2023\/10\/Pegasus-Fa23-Story-LandBeforeTime-1200x800-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-06T18:55:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-08T23:19:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"In the early 1960s, the Davis family became one of the first donors to the University of Central Florida \u2014 and remain so today.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/pegasus\/the-land-before-ucfs-time\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/4\/files\/2023\/10\/Pegasus-Fa23-Story-LandBeforeTime-1200x800-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/4\/files\/2023\/10\/Pegasus-Fa23-Story-LandBeforeTime-1200x800-1.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"A map of Central Florida before UCF's time, showing wide, open fields where Alafaya Trail and Florida Tech Blvd (now University Blvd) meets. 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