Thomas J. Davis Jr.

Thomas Jefferson Davis, Jr. (1912–1989) was an American businessman and investor. He was an early Silicon Valley venture capitalist and founder of the Mayfield Fund.

As Vice President of Kern County Land Company from 1957 to 1961, he managed its investment in four new companies including Watkins-Johnson Company, which investment of $900,000 was sold in 1968 and 1973 by Tenneco, successor to Kern, for over $80 million.

With Arthur Rock, Tommy formed Davis and Rock partnership in 1961, which made many hugely successful investments including Teledyne, Apple Computer and Intel. With Wally Davis and Stanford University, he formed in 1969 another partnership, Mayfield Fund, which also brought great returns not only to its limited partners, but also to Stanford.

Born in 1912 in Cincinnati, Tommy earned his A.B. and J.D. degrees from Harvard University and served in World War II in the Office of Strategic Services in Burma, often behind Japanese lines, as detailed in his 223-page privately published book One Man's War. He died in 1989 before the book was compiled by Jeff McNish and published.

Awards

In 1987 Davis, was an Award Recipient for the EY Entrepreneur of The Year Award in the Northern California Region.

Further reading

• Portraits of Success, Carolyn Caddes, Tioga Publishing, Palo Alto, CA, 1986; ISBN 0-935382-56-9
• One Man's War—A Boston Lawyer on the Jungle Trails of Burma, Thomas J. Davis, Jr., privately published, copyright 1989, ASIN/ISBN B0007C3GQQ, pages 96–97