Interview with Jay Davis by Mike Hastings

Biographial Note

Jay Davis was born May 4, 1943, in Hartford, Connecticut, to Frank and Helen Davis. His father worked for a company that made piano keys, and his mother was a homemaker, raising five children. His great-great-great uncle, Morgan G. Bulkeley, was governor of Connecticut, U.S. Senator, and the first president of baseball’s National League. Jay grew up in Ivoryton, Connecticut, and went to Holderness School in New Hampshire during his high school years. He attended Williams College and, after engaging briefly in journalism and community organizing in Hartford, he attended Harvard University, where he earned a master’s in education. He taught for two years at the Oak Grove-Coburn School in Vassalboro, Maine, then moved to Belfast, Maine, and was elected to serve as a selectman. He began writing a newspaper column for The Republican Journal and later became editor. He has written for Down East, started The Waldo Independent, and was an editor of the Maine Times. At the time of this interview, he worked for Village Soup in Waldo County out of the Belfast office.

Summary

Interview includes discussion of: growing up in Ivoryton, Connecticut; visiting New York City as a child; working for The Berkshire Eagle and bringing in the newspaper guild; Davis’s principles; the Oak Grove-Coburn School; working for The Republican Journal; working for the North End Community Action Project (NECAP) in Hartford and forfeiting his scholarship at The Hartford Times; starting The Waldo Independent; Village Soup; local journalism; an anecdote about Senator Cohen’s coming into their Republican Journal office to discuss his build-down theory; meeting George Mitchell; an anecdote about having a beer with Mitchell and asking him about Dave Emery; MBNA’s effect on Belfast, Maine; the University of Maine satellite campus in Belfast; the political bent of Belfast and Waldo County; the role of the city council; speculation about Mitchell’s becoming commissioner of baseball; and Davis’s connection to baseball.