Educator played big role in community
WAYNESBURG – As a fierce advocate for education, Nancy Davis pushed hard in the late 1990s to bring a community college to Greene County.
A member of the Greene County Education Consortium at the time, she floated the idea and initiated the conversation with Westmoreland County Community College to see if that school would be interested in opening a satellite campus near Waynesburg.
“She was instrumental in bringing us to that community,” WCCC President Tuesday Stanley said, referring to Davis, who died Monday after recently undergoing surgery. She was 80.
After getting the green light for that new community college more than 17 years ago, that’s when Davis really got to work. She immediately stepped up to become the center’s coordinator when it opened in 1999 and continued when a new education center was constructed at the EverGreene Technology Park in 2006, Stanley said.
“She pretty much did it all. Recruited, advised, registered students, did outtake and outreach,” Stanley said.
Davis stepped down as coordinator a year after the new center opened, but then took on the role as workforce development coordinator for the next five years before semi-retiring to part-time work as the energy liaison coordinator trying to help students find jobs in the energy sector.
“The term ‘part-time’ meant nothing. She stepped up with anything that needed to be done,” Stanley said. “She loved the impact of education in the community.”
Tuesday and other community leaders are now remembering Davis as someone who dedicated her life to education, most of which was spent in Greene County.
Born Nancy Ida Everly in Bald Hill, she attended Point Marion High School. Davis began her teaching career at the Perry Township School in 1965, moving up through the ranks in the Central Greene School District before being promoted to superintendent in 1983, serving in that position for seven years.
Upon leaving the district in 1990, she traveled east and spent another four years as a superintendent in Lake-Lehman School District near Wilkes-Barre.
But the Greene County native couldn’t stay away from the area for long.
She came back to the area and in 1998 was a graduate education consultant for what was then called Waynesburg College. Davis was the perfect person at the time to lead the WCCC from its inception, said Bettie Stammerjohn, the executive director of the Community Foundation of Greene County.
“I think Nancy was a born leader, to be honest. If you knew Nancy, you listened,” Stammerjohn said. “When she spoke, she was able to assess things and be able to work among groups with differing opinions and different viewpoints. She had this vision of leadership and building Greene County.”
Davis didn’t just teach, Stammerjohn said. She led by example and pushed others to be better.
“She was adamant about building leaders and not just in adults,” Stammerjohn said. “For her, education never ended. It was important for her to keep learning and keep doing. She had such a knowledge.”
Davis, who lived just outside of Waynesburg, dedicated herself to the college and many civic groups in the county.
She was a charter member of the Greene County United Way when it started in 1982, and she served as president before leaving the board in 1990. She also was a past president of the Waynesburg Rotary Club, a member of the Community Foundation and served four terms on the Waynesburg Chamber of Commerce.
But the highlight of her volunteerism culminated in 2007 when she received the chamber’s Distinguished Service Award for her work.
Barb Wise, director of the Greene County United Way, said Davis was an inspiration to all who met her.
“I always told Nancy, ‘I want to be just like you when I grow up.’ I’m following right in her footsteps,” Wise said.
The past few months have been difficult, though. Her husband of 62 years, the Rev. William H. Davis Sr., died in January. Their only child, William Davis, Jr., died in the early 1980s.
In recent months after her husband’s death, she continued to work with the college and various community organizations.
Stanley said WCCC and the community will miss their “beloved Nancy.”
“The college has really lot a great person. She meant a lot to me,” Stanley said as her voiced cracked with emotion. “The college family is so sad that Nancy won’t be here in person to continue her life’s goal of bringing educational opportunities to Greene.”
I feel like the world’s lost a really great person.”