Mission Point Press, Traverse City, Mich.
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Michael W. R. Davis

Michael W. R. Davis grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where his father had been a newspaper printer, reporter, editor and daily columnist before establishing an advertising agency. Davis wrote my first published story for a junior high school newspaper, an interview with German prisoners-of-war who were earning PX money after the war's end by working in potato fields near our home. From Male I went almost by accident to Yale, instead of to the small Episcopal college in the South that I otherwise would have attended.

At Yale, writing was confined to countless research papers and some feature writing for a college (not university) mimeographed "newspaper." Usually he wrote interviews with interesting College Fellows, such as the Medical School Librarian who had been with the OSS during World War II. 

He graduated with a degree in history started in Miami, writing research reports and put out a twice-monthly business newsletter for a management consulting firm. He was later hired by Business Week as a local correspondent, then became a reporter at the afternoon Miami Daily News. 

Later, he was named Business Week's assistant manager of the Detroit bureau, where he covered the auto industry and labor. Business Week wanted to move him to New York but he didn't want to leave Detroit, so started working on the Ford Public Relations staff, where he spent 25 years. 

At 49, he went back to school and earned an MS degree in historic preservation and later completed course work for a doctorate in history of technology from Wayne State University. He then was named the executive director of the Detroit Historical Society.

He is a prolific author, co-author, editor and contributor on books and articles about automotive history, military history and automotive safety. He loves subjects that required deep research.

In addition I've had the opportunity and pleasure of lecturing at several universities and numerous historical and civic organizations.