$100,000 LaNay F. and Gordon B. Davis Scholarship Endowment Established to Help Education and Accounting Majors

In the 1950’s, Idaho State University—then known as Idaho State College—shaped Drs. LaNay and Gordon Davis’s life. It was here that the Davises met, fell in love, and graduated together in 1955.

As a way to honor the life-changing advice they received from ISU faculty, the LaNay F. and Gordon B. Davis Endowed Scholarship Fund was recently established. This scholarship was created to support first-generation students who are pursuing degrees within the ISU College of Education or the College of Business. 

A Pocatello native and first-generation college student, LaNay earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education Home Economics from ISU in 1955. She recalls that her professors at ISU gave her some very important advice about choosing a field of study. Initially wanting to be a history teacher, her faculty told her that, at that time, history classes were typically taught by coaches, so it may be very hard for her to get a job in that field. She instead chose home economics as a major. 

This critical decision allowed her to begin her career as a middle school home economics teacher in Mountain View, California upon graduation. This income thus supported the couple during Gordon’s four years of graduate study. LaNay then went on to earn a Master of Social Work and a Doctor of Philosophy in Counseling Psychology from the University of Minnesota. She successfully built a private practice specializing in individual, marriage, and family therapy where she helped individuals and families through mentorship, guidance, and counseling. 

Originally from Idaho Falls, Gordon, also a first-generation student, completed his undergraduate degrees in both political science and accounting from ISU. Outstanding advice from Gorgon’s ISU accounting professors, also helped start him on a career trajectory that not only changed his life, but changed the future of business education. Initially, Gordon majored in political science, after returning from his LDS mission, he decided to also major in accounting because it had a clear path to a career. His accounting professors told him that he had great potential, and they encouraged him to do two things: (1) to take the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam before graduation, which he passed on his first try, and (2) to apply to graduate school in accounting, which was something that he had never considered, and to apply only to the very best universities in the country. 

Gordon took this advice and went on to continue his studies by earning both a Master of Business Administration and a Doctor of Philosophy in Business from Stanford University. He started his academic career as an assistant professor of accounting at the University of Minnesota. Once the earliest mainframe computers became available, he began researching how computers could change business. He later became the Honeywell Professor of Management Information Systems in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Gordon was recognized as one of the founders of the academic discipline of Management Information Systems (MIS). Additionally, he was a CPA and held honorary doctorates from the University of Lyon in France, the University of Zurich in Switzerland, and the Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden. In 2006 he received the ISU Distinguished Alumnus Award from his alma mater. 

The $100,0000 LaNay F. and Gordon B. Davis Endowed Scholarship Fund was created to honor the impact ISU faculty had on the Davis’s. This scholarship is available to first-generation college students, who have a 3.0 GPA or higher, and who are enrolled in either the accounting program at the ISU College of Business or any K-12 educational studies programs that includes elementary, secondary, special, and early childhood education at the ISU College of Education. To learn more about this scholarship, please visit isu.edu/scholarships. 

“With support from scholarship endowments such as this, we can continue to offer financial assistance to numerous talented and committed students who are eager to pursue careers in education,” said College of Education Interim Dean, Dr. Esther Ntuli. “Your generosity not only eases their financial burden but also allows them to concentrate on their academic and professional growth.”

Gordon and LaNay were married for 67 years, before Gordon’s passing in 2022 at the age of 91. Together, they had four children, all of whom are college graduates, and three of whom have advanced degrees.