Shelby Davis is a wealthy investor and philanthropist. He founded Davis Selected Advisors; he is the son of Shelby Cullom Davis, and the father of Andrew Davis and Chris Davis, also significant investors.
Remarkably, part of the family's philosophy is to give away the money earned in each generation, so the success of Shelby and his sons is not merely the effect of inheritance.
Davis's largest fund is called the Davis New York Venture Fund, which he created in 1969. It has won various awards, including being named to the Forbes Honor Roll for mutual fund investments. The New York Venture fund has significantly out-performed the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, and Davis has often been called "a closet Peter Lynch."
Davis's most generous philanthropy has been to the United World Colleges, to whom he has given over $50 million for scholarships, and many millions more to restore the Montezuma Castle. Collectively, these represent the biggest contribution to international education ever made by a single donor (as of 2002). Among other things, Davis has created 100 full merit scholarships per year for American students to attend any of the ten UWC campuses. It's a scholarship conceived as a privately funded, junior version of the famous Fulbright Scholarships.