![Education and Certification Led to Career Advancement for Bob Davis When Preparation Met Opportunity](https://cole-tpomag.imgix.net/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tpomag.com%2Fuploads%2Fimages%2Fbobdavis_hopper-37.jpg?crop=focalpoint&fit=crop&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&h=620&ixlib=php-1.1.0&q=75&w=1024&s=f7deef197338b203da7434643f6b3958)
Davis, shown with Vince Malphrus, special projects coordinator, in the plant control room, supervises a recycled water facility that delivers irrigation water to golf courses on an island that is a favorite tourist destination.
At the ripe old age of 19, Bob Davis answered a help wanted newspaper ad from the International Paper research center in Tuxedo, New York.
An aptitude test showed Davis to be pretty smart, and in the early 1970s, the company started him out in a pilot plant, a scaled-down version...