The Alumni Association will host an elegant evening for a good cause on Friday, April 4. The Green Tie Gala will benefit the Dr. Gregory Davis, ’76 need-based scholarships. The event takes place at 7:30 p.m. at Reel Works Studios at NC Music Factory. Tickets are $75 per person.
The event will feature live music, dancing, cocktails, hors d’ouvres, dessert and a mystery box fundraiser.
About Dr. Gregory Davis, ‘76
Dr. Gregory Davis ‘76 was a 21-year-old high school freshman who had been labeled mentally retarded when he dropped out of school in 1972. He got his GED from Central Piedmont Community College. Four years later, he became one of the first African Americans to graduate from UNC Charlotte’s Religious Studies program.
Davis went on to earn a master of divinity degree from Duke and a Ph.D. in American religious history from the Union Institute. “I was always taught that education was the best way out,” Davis says. “I’m just blessed.”
That is a blessing he wanted to facilitate for similar students. Davis went on to oversee minority retention programs at the University with a focus on mentoring first-generation college students.
“When I was first there, there were only about 100 minority students,” he recalls. “Now they represent 20-25 percent of the student population. That’s great!”
When he retired as director of multi-cultural affairs in 2008, his decades-long commitment to the University was rewarded with a need-based scholarship in his honor. Four years post-retirement, Davis misses his interaction with the students. However, pastoring the 180-member Bellafonte Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, N.C. keeps him busy.