University Branch Named Spaces
Spaces named for donors include the David R. Davis Reading Room.
David R. Davis grew up in Idaho, where his love of books quickly became evident. As a youngster, he worked for a printer who paid him in books, which Davis thought was a good deal. He entered the Navy in 1943 and studied medicine while serving in Korea. After the war, he moved to Bellevue where he was a general surgeon until 1997.
David R. Davis Reading Room
Davis has served on the boards of the Seattle Symphony, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the Library Foundation.
Recalling a book discussion with Russell Banks at the University Branch in 1998, Davis said:
"I think that everyone there shared in the warm aura of intellectual excitement and humanity. It had been a serious involvement with the problems of living and dying. I looked around the room with its books packed with knowledge and ideas, its comfortable chairs and tables and the wonderful old Carnegie building itself -- everything free and open to the public -- and it struck me what a wonderful institution the public library is! The spirit of that day still inhabits this place; the 'genius loci' is there to inspire everyone who comes here."