OGDEN — The Rev. France Davis, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, will speak at Weber State University’s 152nd convocation on Friday, Dec. 14.
The Rev. Davis will address graduates in the Jerry and Vickie Moyes College of Education at 8 a.m. in the Dee Events Center. He will also speak to the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts and Humanities at 1 p.m. in the Val A. Browning Center Austad Auditorium. His prerecorded remarks will be played at other college convocation ceremonies held throughout the day.
The Rev. Davis has been the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church for 44 years. He was licensed as a minister in 1966 and was ordained 1971. He came to Salt Lake City in 1972 as a teaching fellow and graduate student at the University of Utah. He served as assistant pastor at Calvary Baptist while he was in school. In 1974, he became the church’s full-time pastor.
He was involved in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights campaigns, including the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. He served four years as an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force. After his time in the service, he decided to go into the ministry.
Weber State awarded the Rev. Davis an honorary degree in April for his lifelong commitment to education. He holds multiple degrees, including two master’s degrees in mass communication from the University of Utah and master’s degree of ministry from Northwest Nazarene College. He served on the Utah State Board of Regents from 2008 to 2017. He retired from the U. in 2014 as an adjunct associate professor. Five scholarships have been established in his honor.