On January 17, Mr. Davidson greeted a Peddie alumnus at the school gates. This alum was visiting the school with his wife for the first time since he graduated in 2000. While most students may not notice this occurrence, it is part of Mr. Davidson’s everyday work: giving campus tours to alumni, introducing them to new activities and coordinating meetings with former teachers. Mr. Davidson’s role also consists of traveling around the world and interacting with students living in Kaye North. As Mr. Davidson himself highlighted, his job is “reconnecting alumni to Peddie and keeping them engaged.” 

Having joined the Peddie Alumni & Development department in 1991, Mr. Davidson arrived shortly before Walter Annenberg ’27’s $100 million gift to Peddie in 1993. He recalled that people called from all over the world to congratulate the school for receiving such a gift, boosting everyone’s confidence in their work. Throughout his subsequent 30 years serving in alumni relations, Mr. Davidson has regularly met with other admissions officers to organize reunions and introduce the school in its newest form to alumni who graduated many years ago. These reunion weekends occur every year after graduation, and each class has a reunion every five years. Mr. Davidson enjoys seeing alumni who return for reunion weekend to reconnect with former classmates and re-engage with Peddie.

As per his job, Mr. Davidson travels constantly, flying internationally to meet with prospective students, parents and alumni. Traveling helps him better understand current international students and the various career paths of alumni. After a fourteen-hour flight, Mr. Davidson remarked, he empathizes with international students’ jetlag! At his various destinations, Mr. Davidson hosts networking events for Peddie alumni, bringing together former students who share similar interests and experiences, regardless of their age difference. He views this part of the job as “putting pieces together, connecting the dots.” He also enjoys traveling because it allows him to visit many fantastic places. He recounted a funny occasion during one of his trips to Beijing, where he climbed to the highest point of the Great Wall of China only to see a middle-aged woman selling water at the top, causing him to question his own athleticism.

In addition to his role in alumni relations, Mr. Davidson is one of the dorm faculty members of Kaye North, having previously served in Coleman and Kerr. For Mr. Davidson, it is not enough to solely work in the office; he wants to be part of the community. He emphasized that in the dorms, he has more chances to interact with current students and form lasting friendships. Students frequently praise Mr. Davidson for the delicious cookies he brings when on dorm duty. The cookies are a little tradition that Mr. Davidson started in the 1990s, and ever since then, he has made around 100 cookies every week. The cookies bring students out of their rooms and into the lounge area to socialize with him and one another. 

Mr. Davidson explains that his main goal is to make Peddie more well-known, with more alumni talking about the school, their experiences and how it benefited them. He finds it fascinating to see how Peddie students commit to a variety of fields and develop after they graduate. Mr. Davidson proudly announced, “Peddie is such a school of opportunity, both to students and also to the faculty and staff who have the privilege of working here.” He loves the opportunity to “meet incredible kids, wonderful parents, and alumni who are grateful for the experience they have here.”