Lawrence Tingook Davis Memorial Scholarship

The UAF Reindeer Research Program Scholarship is named the Lawrence T. Davis Memorial Scholarship Fund, in honor of Lawrence Tingook Davis, who passed away of cancer in Anchorage on February 4, 2006. Mr. Davis, owner and operator of a reindeer herd in Nome since 1967.

Mr. Davis was born Feb. 24, 1930 in Deering, Alaska. He completed the ninth grade and later was a member of the Alaska Territorial Guard of Deering (1944–1948) and the Alaska National Guard of Nome (1951–1958). In other arenas, Mr. Davis served as president of Sitnasuak Native Corporation, as a councilman on the Nome City Council, and as an Alaska state representative. He worked on the establishment of rural Alaska community colleges, and received historical recognition for the Iditarod Trail. Mr. Davis was so well recognized for his diverse contributions to education, his community, state, and country, that he was invited to the White House to meet President Ford.

Mr. Davis strongly supported agriculture, education, and our Reindeer Research Program through his commitment to education. He passed on much knowledge and experience to people that he met throughout his life, as well as the future generations. Mr. Davis, who founded the Reindeer Herder’s Association, had a range of knowledge that encompassed such things as subsistence hunting, fishing, gathering, and gold mining, as well as reindeer herding.

Mr. Davis was very supportive in helping establish the reindeer research herd at the UAF Fairbanks Experiment Farm, and even supplied the university with deer from his herd. Mr. Davis also helped establish the current and future direction of range management, meat production and reindeer nutrition research conducted by the Reindeer Research Program.

The UAF Reindeer Research Program’s Lawrence T. Davis Memorial Scholarship Fund is supported by proceeds from the Fairbanks Experiment Farm research herd. Scholarships are awarded as funds allow.