Davis, Archie K.

Archie K. Davis wrote "The Boy Colonel of the Confederacy" (1987) and was chair of the board of Wachovia Bank and Trust Company; president of the American Bankers Association, 1966; and president of the United States Chamber of Commerce.

Archie K. Davis, North Carolina banker, was born 22 January 1911, in Winston-Salem. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, Davis was named assistant treasurer of Wachovia Bank in 1938; assistant vice-president in 1940; vice-president in 1942; and senior vice-president of the Winston-Salem office in 1946. Davis became chair of the board of Wachovia Bank and Trust Company in 1956. In 1966, he was elected president of the American Bankers Association. From 1971 to 1972, Davis served as president of the United States Chamber of Commerce.

In addition to his banking career, Archie K. Davis was a leader in regional development. From 1958 to 1962, he served two terms as senator in the North Carolina General Assembly. Davis was an organizer and first president of the Northwest North Carolina Development Association. He served as president of the Research Triangle Foundation and was a leader in the development of Research Triangle Park. Davis served on the boards of several companies including the executive committee of Robert Morris Associates, and the board of trustees of UNC-CH, Converse College, and Salem Academy and College. A Moravian, Davis was a charter member and president of the organization that restored Old Salem.

Davis was also an avid Civil War historian. After his retirement from Wachovia in 1974, he returned to the University of North Carolina to earn a Masters Degree and complete a dissertation. Although Davis never took the preliminary examinations requisite for the PhD, The University of North Carolina Press, in 1985, published Boy Colonel of the Confederacy: The Life and Times of Henry King Burgwyn Jr., based on his dissertation.