A New York City civic leader whose legacy includes the arts and Central Park has died.
Gordon Davis, the city’s parks commissioner in the late 70s and early 80s, died of complications of emphysema. He was 85.
Davis was the founding chairman of Jazz at Lincoln Center and was also on the boards of the Public Theater, Dance Theater of Harlem and the Studio Theater of Harlem. The city’s first Black parks commissioner created the park’s conservancy, restored the Sheep Meadow, and made possible Elton John’s concert in 1980 and Simon and Garfunkel’s in 1981.
Davis brought in James Taylor for a final concert before the Sheep Meadow was closed to the public for a year of repairs. He helped obtain a substantial grant from the governor’s office for the renovation project.