SVCOA Board Corner: George Davis
By Ellen Green, SVCOA Communications & Volunteer Coordinator
George Davis is the President of the SVCOA Board of Directors and has been on the board for almost 8 years. He was approached by Dick and Elaine Nordmeyer, who were just leaving the board, and they told him he was going to join the board. He laughed about being railroaded but has been very active at SVCOA ever since.
He admitted to being “as Vermont as it gets”. He was brought up on a 150-acre farm within the city limits of Montpelier. He had the benefits of both worlds – the open spaces of the farm and the city amenities like a swimming pool, baseball field, and good schools. He graduated from Johnson State with a B.A. in Science Education, and his first teaching job was in Rochester, VT. There were only 140 students in the whole school; sadly, now the school is closed because of dwindling population. During his 10 years living in Rochester, George got married and had two children. He then accepted a position at Voc. Rehab at the Brandon Training Center where he developed a special place in his heart for students with special needs. He earned his M.Ed. in Guidance and Counseling from Castleton State but then took a position in Fair Haven as the Director of Special Services. After 5 years of being an administrator, he decided to take a job in the Guidance Department of Granville High School in NY. This was the largest school in which he’d worked – over 1000 students. After 1 ½ years there, he needed to go to NJ on a “blitzkrieg” to help move his parents back to Vermont, after which he took a guidance position at Poultney HS with his son’s permission; his son was a student at the school. He retired after 15 years in Poultney, became bored after a few months, and took a part-time job at the Vermont Country Store for another 7 years.
In 2010 he suffered, “a life-changing stroke that made me wake up and smell the roses!” He has made a full recovery. He has also been an elected town official for over 50 years and feels that we are all in community and we all need to contribute.
George is “living the pandemic dream” on his 20 acres at the end of a dirt road with his wife and 2 labs, who love to go for long walks. He is “treating the pandemic with respect”, and it bothers him greatly to see people at beach parties with no masks. He keeps in touch with his family via cell phone, but he sometimes has to drive to the end of the driveway or to the town offices to get good service. George reads voraciously and volunteers in several capacities. He is looking forward to when he can take his grandchildren on and in the waters of either Lake Bomoseen or Lake Hortonia. George’s father was the fish and game warden, and he would take little George with him to deliver the hunting and fishing licenses to each of the town offices. That most likely made George the youngest member of the 251 Club! He loves all of Vermont, especially the Rutland area and Hubbardton, where he lives, with the lakes, the park, the battlefield and Mount Independence in Orwell.
George said that the Board of Directors has seen a shift in how things are accomplished at SVCOA because of the pandemic. The Board has had to shift their thinking about how to move forward, and they anticipate doing that with a new Executive Director.