Shelby C. Davis ’30

SHELBY C. DAVIS, a Princeton benefactor, died June 29, 1994, in Hobe Sound, Fla. Shelby prepared for Princeton at Lawrenceville. At Princeton, he was a member of the Princetonian board and was editor senior year. He also belonged to Charter Club. At Commencement, Shelby took highest honors in history and the Lawrence Hutton Prize in history. Post­-graduate work followed: a master's at Columbia and a D. Se. Pol. at the Univ. of Geneva. He wrote copiously. Among his books are Resvoirs of Men (I934), The French War Machine (1937), The Investment Decisions of Industry (1939), America Faces The For­ties (1940), and Your Career in Defense (1944).

In 1964, Shelby gave Princeton $5.3 million for its history department, endowed Princeton's Center for History Studies, and endowed several chairs for history there. He began his career as a statistician and became treasurer of the Delaware Fund in 1937. Four years later, he was elected a member of the New York Stock Exchange. During the war, Shelby served two years in Washington. For many years, he was managing partner of Shelby C. Davis & Co. Shelby was economic advisor to Thomas Dewey in the 1940 and 1944 campaigns, and later served as ambassador to Switzerland.

In 1932, Shelby married Kathryn E. Waterman and they have two children, Shelby M. and Mrs. Diana D. Spencer, and four grandchildren. To them, the class extends its sympathy.