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Veteran legislator leads AARP
Early start as a leader Davis, who was born in Georgia, moved to Baltimore with his family in 1948. He attended public schools, graduating from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, where he was both captain of the football team and president of his class. In the early 1960s, he served four years in the United States Air Force, a period he now says was the “cornerstone” of his life. He was stationed for three years in Europe (England and France), with temporary assignments in Germany and Vietnam, working on vital security matters. “To have had a position of responsibility in the military, in a time of unrelenting
JULY 2012
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PHOTO COURTESY OF AARP
By Carol Sorgen At almost 70 years of age, Clarence “Tiger” Davis reports that he feels completely “reinvigorated” by his appointment as president of the 830,000-member Maryland Chapter of AARP. “I’m walking on cloud nine with this responsibility,” he said. As state president, Davis chairs the state executive council and works with the senior state director to provide vision and leadership for AARP’s work in Maryland. The presidency is a volunteer position. The state president is also responsible for helping to build relationships with other organizations, and serves as the principal AARP volunteer spokesperson in Maryland. “I am proud to serve AARP at such a critical stage in the public debate over how we age with dignity and purpose in America and across the state of Maryland,” said Davis. Davis said AARP is working to create positive social change “to enhance the quality of life for all of us as we age…to protect our rights…work on which you can’t place a value.” During his first year as state president, AARP Maryland has weighed in on a number of local and national issues affecting older adults, said Davis, including Medicare and Social Security, older worker employment, proposed utility rate increases, hunger, and funding in Maryland for homeand community-based services that enable seniors to stay in their homes as long as they want.
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ARTS & STYLE AARP Maryland President Clarence “Tiger” Davis draws on his leadership experience as a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates, professor and counselor for veterans, to help steer the 830,000-member chapter.
racism, was paramount to my development,” he said. Those experiences, together with the support of his family, gave him the strength of spirit to achieve all his later accomplishments. After his military service, Davis attended Morgan State College and University, where he earned both a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master’s degree in history and social science. He also pursued doctoral studies there. While attending college, Davis served as a civil rights organizer for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). He also was appointed to the Model Cities Program Board of Directors by then-Mayor Thomas D’A-
lessandro, and successfully organized a community organization around the North Avenue/Greenmount Avenue corridor. He continued to work as a social worker and community organizer early in his career, which allowed him to apply what he had learned in college to assist his fellow veterans. “Every able-bodied black man from our community served in the Vietnam War,” Davis said. “I watched them all get drafted, and I saw their wounds — physical and/or emotional — when they came home. Too many of them were just walking time bombs.” See AARP PRES., page 14
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