Rex D. Davis

Rex Darwin Davis (1924–2008) was a federal law enforcement officer in the United States, with a long career in the U.S. Treasury Department. He was the first director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

Personal
Mr. Davis was born June 11, 1924, in Skiatook, Oklahoma. He began his education at the University of Oklahoma in 1942, but interrupted it for World War II military service (1943–1946). After the war, he married (1946) and completed a law degree (1949). Later in his career, he was a visiting student at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School (1965–1966).

He was a bombardier in the U.S. Army Air Forces, 1942–1945, and flew thirty-three combat missions with Eighth Air Force, England. He returned to civilian life a first lieutenant, decorated with the Air Medal and Purple Heart.

He was a strong supporter of the Brady Campaign against gun violence. He was a founding member of the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington.

He died of complications from a colon infection, January 7, 2008, in Bethesda, Maryland.

Awards & memberships

 * William A. Jump Memorial Foundation Meritorious Award for contributions to operating procedures in administering the Alcohol and Tax Division of the Internal Revenue Service.
 * International Platform Association
 * Federal Bar Association
 * Federal Business Association
 * Pi Kappa Alpha
 * Greenhills (Ohio) Golf and Country Club

Career

 * U.S. Treasury Department, criminal investigator (agent), in McAlester, Oklahoma, (1949–1955)
 * part-time law instructor and assistant director at Treasury Law Enforcement School, Washington, D.C., 1953–1961
 * special investigator in Richmond, Virginia, 1955–1958
 * enforcement examiner on national office staff, Washington, D.C., 1958–1962
 * executive assistant to assistant regional commissioner, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Division, Internal Revenue Service, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1962–1966
 * assistant regional commissioner 1966–
 * director of the IRS ATF division (1970–1972)
 * director of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (apart from the IRS) (1972–1978?)
 * retired from federal service (1978)
 * head of three trade associations in the alcoholic-beverages industry (after 1978)
 * president of the National Association of Beverage Importers
 * president and chief executive of New Europe Wines
 * executive director of the President's Forum of the Beverage Alcohol Industry.

Writings

 * Contributor to Police.
 * Contributor to Police.