Sandra Jean Caldwell Davis

Southwest Virginia and the Commonwealth at large have lost a highly respected citizen, businesswoman, benefactor, and humanitarian. Sandra Jean Caldwell Davis passed away on March 17, aged seventy-nine. The fourth child of Thornton William Caldwell and Senora Harmon Caldwell, "Sandy" was born August 9, 1946, in Radford, and grew to adulthood in Indian Valley, graduating from Floyd High School in 1964. At age seventeen she began a working career that lasted almost sixty years, starting with the State Health Department, where she advanced to become supervisor and Health Director in Radford and Giles County. Following that she took an entry position at the Bank of Christiansburg, and over the course of fourteen years rose to senior vice president, the first woman in Southwest Virginia to achieve that position.

Recognizing the underserved market for college housing at the time, she and her late husband Patrick D. Cupp founded BCR Real Estate and Property Management, renting apartments to serve both Virginia Tech and Radford University students. Following his accidental death in 2000, she assumed full management of the firm, which eventually grew to more than six hundred apartments and houses. She continued to operate BCR until she sold the Radford business in 2016, and later the Blacksburg properties in 2022.

Unable to afford college when she finished high school, Sandy felt a deep commitment to the value of higher education, and the necessity of making it as open to all as possible. She and her husband began making donations to various scholarship funds at both universities. After his accidental death in 2,000, she became a benefactor of athletic scholarships at Virginia Tech and endowed the Cupp soccer stadium at Radford. In time she chaired the Virginia Tech Foundation Board of Directors, the Virginia Tech Athletic Fund Board of Directors, and served on the campaign steering committee for Virginia Tech's first $1 billion capital campaign.

Interest in encouraging business growth in the region led her to serve on the board of Go Virginia/Region 2, to chair the boards of the Blacksburg Partnership and Radford's Carilion hospital, as well sitting on the board of the Business Council of Roanoke and co-chairing the New River Passenger Rail Commission. At the same time, her commitment to higher education led to her service on the board of directors of New River Community College and resulted in gubernatorial appointments to the Boards of Visitors of both Radford University and Virginia Tech, as well as a position on the board of the Via College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Her efforts in these endeavors resulted in her being named Citizen of the Year by both the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and the Blacksburg Rotary, and in 2022 she was inducted into the Southwest Virginia Business Hall of Fame. Virginia Tech recognized her contributions to education by naming her an honorary life member of its Alumni Association, and bestowing on her the university's highest recognition, the William H. Ruffner Award. Radford University in 2019 awarded her the degree of Honorary Doctor of Business. In 2022 she was made a laureate of Junior Achievement's Southwest Virginia Hall of Fame.

In 2003 Sandra married historian and writer William C. "Jack" Davis, and together they co-endowed the Street-Davis performance hall at Virginia Tech's Center for the Arts, Radford University's Davis Performance Hall, and the Davis College of Business and Economics, as well as many scholarships at both universities and New River Community College.

Besides her husband of 23 years, Sandra Davis is survived by her sister Mildred Weddle, two stepchildren, more than a dozen nieces and nephews in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Oregon, and her beloved Welsh corgi "Cuddles." Final arrangements will be made by McCoy Funeral Home and interment will be at Blacksburg's Memorial Gardens of the New River Valley in a private family ceremony.

A celebration of life will take place on Sunday, April 19, 2026, at 2:00 pm at Virginia Tech's Center for the Arts. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Humane Society of Montgomery County.