John Davies has worked over 55 years and been involved in challenging fields, from journalism to steelmaking, to farm equipment, to health care, to entrepreneurship, and to economic development. John was inspired as a result of a 1,000 mile solo bicycle journey during a summer vacation while attending Valparaiso University traveling through 7 countries in Europe when he sent bi-weekly articles of his experiences to his hometown paper. His dream was to become a writer, eventually a journalist, and this took him on all sorts of adventures. He was trained at the City News Bureau of Chicago, and after his service in the United States Marines, he worked for the Chicago Tribune. Later he helped stabilize grower support across 14 states in the southern half of the country for Cotton Incorporated in New York, the nation's checkoff grower organization for U.S. Upland Cotton. He did this while serving the Cotton Board in Memphis, TN.
He also helped promote residential steel framing in Northwest Indiana, and inspired the launch of the Hawaii Steel Alliance that today is a leader in the nation in steel framing. But perhaps he is best known for three innovations in his region of Jasper, Lake, La Porte, Newton, Porter, Pulaski and Starke Counties of Northwest Indiana. First, he founded The Society of Innovators at Ivy Tech Community College Northwest in Gary serving the Northwest Indiana region, and served as its Founding Managing Director for 13 years. The Society is now based at Purdue University Northwest, and is called the Society of Innovators at Purdue Northwest. Secondly, he founded the Wall of Legends to honor people who made a difference in the world based upon the values of Exploration, Courage, Creativity and Innovation. At the 2021 Induction, he was honored to be named the 82nd Legend. And thirdly, he is known for repurposing and relaunching the modern-day South Shore Posters featuring new regional art with the Northwest Indiana Forum to introduce the beauty of the Indiana Dunes and new commerce to new generations; the original posters were introduced in the 1920's to encourage tourism along the South Shore rail line.
John and his wife Jo Ann Davies now live on the family farm outside of Valparaiso. He and his family grow thousands of walnut trees for "future generations." John and his wife have two wonderful daughters with their families, Kelly Allen Stephens Davies, of Paris, France, and Jennifer Janet Hughes Davies of Chicago. John graduated from Valparaiso University and was born in Washington, D.C., and has just celebrated his 80th year. John is honored to have his served his family, colleagues, region and country over these nearly 6 decades.