DAVIS, Lyle S.

DAVIS, WOODWARD

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 11/11/2014 at 02:57:41

The Globe Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Saturday, November 02, 1940, Page 5

THEY STARTED HERE
No. 35 in a Mason City Series of Success Stories

Lyle S. Davis, Horticulturist

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Scientists are precise people. They like to get things down to definite figures or formulas - down to a basis in which there is no uncertainty.

It's comparatively simple to get some things broken down into formulas. Take water, for instance. Nearly everyone knows that the scientific prescripton for water is H2O.

But some other things aren't so easily placed on an exact basis. One of them is success, but most people, including scientists, can't find the formula. On the other hand, some do.

Prof. Lyle Davis, son of Mr. and Mrs. I. Guy Davis, 636 East State street, is one of those people who have found the secret of success. It's two part - hard work and ability.

* * *
For Lyle Davis, now a leading educator, horticulturist and forestry expert at South Dakota State college, Brookings, S. Dak., has made a success of himself by hard work an real ability."Self-made man" is an overworked term, but it applies in the instance perfectly.

Lyle Davis was born at Zearing, March 10, 1904, but came here a year later when his parents moved to Mason City. With the exception of a short time the family lived at Spencer and Sanborn, he was reared and educated in Mason City.

Even as a youngster, Lyle Davis was a go-getter. During the time he was growing up here until he was graduated from high school in 1923, he worked as a newsboy, sold the Saturday Evening Post, was a farm hand, worked as a janitor, gained some experience as a hardware clerk, served as a bell hop and was a freight clerk.

* * *
For a time the Davis family lived at Spencer - Lyle was 14 then - and did other odd jobs. He had an intense interest in farming and one year bought a thoroughbred hog at the Clay county fair for $150, which had taken him some time to earn and save.

The hog raising venture didn't turn out so well, for the Davis family lived in town. But he finally managed to sell the hog and her litter without suffering any great loss.

It was also while he was at Spencer that the 14 year old youth negotiated a $50 loan at the local bank - without so much as a signing note. Hebought a washing machine for his mother.

After being graduated from Mason City high school, where he had earned a reputation for being an intelligent and plugging student, Lyle Davis worked for a time in a local dry cleaning shop and here he learned a line of while which was later to be considerable help for him.

* * *
A year following his graduation, Lyle Davis and DeAlda A. Woodward were married. Mrs. Davis' parents are Mr. and Mrs. Bert Woodward, who live on a farm near Mason City. Mr. and Mrs. Davis are the parents of four children, Robert, Dean, Diane and Sandra.

Continuing his work at the cleaning shop for some time, Lyle Davis finally decided to go to Ames and continue his education. This he did, enrolling as a forester at Iowa State college [present day Iowa State University] in 1926. After having spent one summer vacation in western Montana, the Mason Cityan decided to transfer to horticulture, a closely allied field. This he did in 1930.

Going to college and supporting a family - he and Mrs. Davis were then the parents of their first son, Robert - kept Lyle Davis working hard. He worked in the horticulture department greenhouse, was an expert spotter and clean for a local dry cleaning shop, fired a furnace, served as an assistant swimming coach, managed the Carroll municipal swimming pool one summer, and worked another summers in a canning plant at Rochester, Minn. And working equally hard was his wife, who helped the finances by taking in roomers and boarders and who deserves much of the credit for her husband's education.

* * *
After winning a bachelor of science degree in 1932, the Mason Cityan entered the graduate school in the fall and in a year's time had earned a master's degree with majors in floriculture and botany. His master's thesis was on "Comparative Anatomy of Blind and Rose Shoots."

In June of 1934, he stopped work temporarily on his Ph. D. degree to accept a job with the bureau of plant industry of the United States department of agriculture, serving as an assistant forest pathologist with headquarters in Albuquerque, N. M. It was while he was on this job that the former Mason Cityan gathered much research data on forest tree diseases in Montana and South Dakota.

In November, 1934, Professor Davis resigned his post to become director of subsistence gardens for the IERA, holding the job for one year. In those 12 months the value of the garden produce harvested by IERA recipients was $1,999,508.90, as compared to expenditures by the state and federal governments of $154,990.56 for seeds and supervision.

* * *
And so in that one year's work Lyle Davis showed himself to be not only an expert horticulturist, but a fine businessman. And it was the poor people and the state and federal governments who benefited.

In November, 1935, the former local man turned to education, accepting a position as assistant professor of horticulture and forestry at South Dakota State college at Brookings. Then, on July 1, 1937, he became an associate professor and was made acting head of the department of horticulture and forestry. He was also appointed experiment station horticulurist in recognition of his ability and research work.

But even though he has reached a responsible position in the field of college education, Professor Davis hasn't given up learning. In 1938 he attended summer school sessions at the University of Minnesota and he has now passed the preliminary examinations for a Ph. D. degree at Iowa State college. He hopes to earn the doctor's degree in the near future.

* * *
Much of Professor Davis' research is in the field of plant physiology and breeding. Research on vitamin C in tomatoes is being conducted and will form part of the requirements for the Ph. D. degree.

The former Mason Cityan has already won considerable recognition for his work at Brookings. He is listed in "America's Young Men" for 1938-39, is a contributor to a number of scientific publications and is a consulting botanist for the Pan-American Society of Tropical Research, in addition, he is an active member of several national and state horticultural groups.

And Professor Davis is further active in handling some of the famed shelter belt work in the western part of the state in which thousands of trees are being planted.

And that's the story to date of Prof. - soon to be Dr. - Lyle S. Davis. It's nothing especially spectacular, but it's sound and productive and in the long run may mean more than a flashy tale would. For Lyle Davis' work is of the stuff that made America great - hard work, brains, a constant pressing on to new frontiers and more knowledge.

Photograph courtesy of Globe-Gazette

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, November of 2014

Cerro Gordo Biographies maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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