Erroll B. Davis, Jr., former chancellor of the University System of Georgia and interim superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, died Sunday after battling a rare degenerative disease, according to an obituary.
“Erroll was a man of integrity who understood that our public colleges and universities are the primary engines of our state’s prosperity,” current University System Chancellor and former Gov. Sonny Perdue said in a statement. “As our first African American chancellor, he broke barriers but never let his historical milestone overshadow the system’s mission: serving the students of this state.”
Credit: John Spink
Credit: John Spink
A former energy company executive, Davis led the University System from February 2006 to June 2011. The same year he stepped down, he was recruited to serve as interim superintendent for Atlanta Public Schools. Four days after he stepped into that role, almost 200 APS employees were accused of participating in a cheating scheme on state-issued standardized tests.
Several dozen educators retired or quit after Davis told the implicated employees they could resign or face termination. Graduation rates and test scores improved during his tenure, but still trailed the state average.
Davis served as the school district’s temporary superintendent for three years before retiring.
A native of Pittsburgh, Davis received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1965, and went on to earn an MBA from the University of Chicago. He served as the chairman and CEO of Wisconsin-based Alliant Energy, becoming one of a handful of Black executives to lead a Fortune 500 company.
Davis served on several boards, including the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents, the board of trustees at Carnegie Mellon, General Motors and Union Pacific Corp. He was also the recipient of several awards. He was crowned one of the “50 Most Powerful Black Executives in America” by Fortune magazine in 2002 and received the Carnegie Mellon Alumni Distinguished Service Award from his alma mater in 2004.
In an 2014 interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Davis said running Atlanta Public Schools, was the hardest job he ever had.
Davis said he regretted few of his decisions as superintendent.
“If you posit a particular situation and said ‘If you had to do this again would you do it differently?’ the answer would probably always be yes,” he said. “But if you ask, ‘Would you make a different decision?’ I probably would say no. I probably would have done the same thing but in a different way.”
Davis is survived by his wife, Elaine Davis, his children, Christopher and Whitney Davis, his granddaughter, Alexus Davis, and his great-granddaughter, Arielle Davis.
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