Walter Royal Davis, a Pasquotank County farmer's son who became a Texas oil tycoon and returned to North Carolina as a philanthropist and an influential figure in politics and higher education, died Monday night at his home in Chapel Hill.

He was 88.

Davis was a major benefactor and supporter of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was a trustee for 16 years, including two years as chairman of the board.

He donated money for scholarships and fought to claim $32 million from the state legislature from the sale of university utilities. Part of that money went to the construction of the university's high-rise Walter R. Davis Library, which opened in 1984.

Funeral arrangements have not been announced.

"Walter Davis has meant so much to this University and the entire state of North Carolina," UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser said in a prepared statement. He was among Carolina's strongest advocates, and we'll be forever grateful for his dedicated service."

Davis served an unprecedented four terms as a member of the university's board of trustees, starting in the 1970s and ending in 2001. He twice served as the board's chairman.

Davis was a legendary figure who had a way of making things happen on the political scene and at the university. He was a major donor to the Dean Smith Center and a scholarship program for students who agreed to teach in poor counties in northeastern North Carolina.

In 1999 during a trustee meeting, then-student body president Nic Heinke asked his fellow board members to give a donation to Hurricane Floyd relief efforts. Heinke passed around his baseball cap and came up with $400 in donations from trustees. When the hat got to Davis, he dropped in a check for $100,000.

Then 79, Davis had to ask a fellow trustee to fill out the check because his eyesight was poor.

"Times are pretty tough," Davis was quoted in The News & Observer, and asked that the money go to displaced students at hard-hit East Carolina University.

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