<p>Former University of Georgia President Fred C. Davison, who guided the state's flagship school from 1967-86, died Wednesday at University Hospital. He had been suffering from cancer.</p><p>Davison, 74, was retired but had headed a science foundation in Augusta after leaving the university. He resigned from Georgia after Jan Kemp, an English teacher, received a $1.08 million settlement of a lawsuit in which a jury agreed she had been improperly fired for protesting preferential treatment of athletes at the Athens campus.</p><p>Davison's 19-year tenure was the third-longest of any president in the school's 216-year history, university spokesman Tom Jackson said.</p><p>The current president, Michael Adams, said Davison "was a true visionary leader of the University of Georgia, and the entire university community greatly mourns his passing.</p><p>"The influence his life had on this institution will endure for generations to come. He was especially instrumental in UGA's rapid rise in research, particularly in the life sciences," Adams said.</p><p>On April 16, Davison attended a formal ceremony where the Athens campus named the life sciences building in his honor. As president, he pushed for the school to make a single facility fo genetics and biochemestry programs. He helped design the building and worked to get state funding for its construction.</p><p>The 257,000-square-foot building opened in 1991 at a cost of $32 million, which at the time was the largest construction project ever in the state's University System.</p><p>Davison, a native of Marietta, was a UGA alumnus who rose to dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine and vice chancellor of the University System of Georgia.</p><p>While he was president, the university's total budget grew fivefold, from $72.5 million to $370 million. The research budget soared from $15.6 million to more than $96 million. Graduate enrollment more than doubled, and the number of doctoral degrees awarded annually rose from 123 to 300.</p><p>Student enrollment climbed from 15,600 to 25,000, and 15 major buildings were erected. They included the Boyd Graduate Studies Research Center, Tate Student Center and the double-decking of Sanford Stadium.</p><p>Davison's wife, Dianne, was a 1952 graduate of the College of Veterinary Medicine.</p><p>After leaving the presidency, Davison spent two years on the veterinary faculty. In 1988, he became president and CEO of the National Science Center Foundation Inc., in Augusta, a position he held until 2002.</p>
