Distinguished for his work in higher education, Dr. Davenport retired after more than forty years in College and University classrooms. He was a mentor for pre-medical students and dozens of his former students now serve in medical professions. He developed and taught a popular course on the "Biology of Sexually Transmitted Diseases" in 1975, a time long before this subject was addressed by other universities. Apart from teaching, many of Dr. Davenport’s activities revolved around programs for students. These included a tutoring program for the retention of women and minorities in Engineering/Computer Sciences and Liaison and Director, Incentive Grants Program of the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering. Active in local, state and national organizations related to education, he served on the Senior Accrediting Commission for the Western Association of Colleges and Universities and as a consultant/ evaluator for a number of companies and institutions including NIH, NSF and the Danforth Foundation. Dr. Davenport also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Orange County/Long Beach (CA) Health Consortium, an organization of health care educators, providers and consumers that was designed to coordinate and improve delivery of health care. His research was in the area of antimicrobial resistance of pathogenic bacteria.