Dr. Willis Bing Davis
Chairman: Board of Directors National Conference of Artists
Cultural leader, Willis "Bing" Davis was born on June 30, 1937 in Greer, South Carolina to Verona Hargrove Davis Buffington and Livonia "Lee" Davis, a coal truck driver and gospel singer. Growing up on Dayton, Ohio's East Side, Davis attended Washington Elementary School.
Bing agreed that the smallness of the community also meant a lot of camaraderie and mentoring from older members in the community. Bing talked about his high school teacher and coach, Dean Dooley: “More than a teacher, he was there, he talked with my family, talked to my mother, aunts and uncles, to point me in the right direction.”
Bing remembered that when Coach Dooley found out he was planning to drop out of Wilbur Wright High School, he took him and three other boys on an impromptu road trip to visit DePauw University.
The trip changed his life, not only because he ended up attending DePauw and went on to become a prominent artist, but because his coach’s interest in him showed him the importance of having supportive, encouraging mentors reaching out to you.
“If someone had not nurtured me, I would not have been able to do it. The potential might have been there, but I would not have done it.” The work he does as an educator is his way of giving back for all he received.
