With his young face, relaxed ways and quick wit, it’s no great stretch to picture Terry Davis as a black-bag-toting, awe-shucks specimen of the vanishing small-town doc who still makes house calls.

Davis is no doctor, he’s the director for franchising and government affairs for Comcast.com, responsible for its South King and Spokane area markets. But his willingness to pitch in and help with all things Auburn and his quiet, effective leadership in so doing set him apart.

His resumé tells the story.

Davis is current chairman of the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors and past president of the Auburn Rotary Club. He is the vice chair at the Auburn Valley YMCA and the issues committee chair for the South Sound Chambers of Commerce Legislative Coalition (SSCCLC). In the past, he has served on the White River Valley Museum Board and on the board for Communities and Schools of Auburn.

As chairman of the Auburn Bicycle Task Force and the Urban Core Task Force, Davis recently carried off back-to-back, hour-long presentations to the City Council’s Committee of the Whole without a hitch.

“I am a leader who likes to move things forward,” Davis said.

For all things Auburn that Davis has helped move forward, the Auburn Reporter has named him its Person of the Year for 2010.

Auburn City Councilwoman Sue Singer appreciates Davis’ many qualities.

“He has really provided leadership in the community in the last few years for the Rotary Club, the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce and for the City,” Singer said. “He’s very fair as a chairman of a committee.”

Singer added: “I tried to talk him into running for Council, but he wanted nothing to do with that, probably thought it would be less work than he’s used to doing!”

Davis does his homework, said Nancy Wyatt, President and COO of the Auburn Area Chamber of Commerce.

“Yes, he’s got that relaxed, easy-going manner, but he is also highly informed on the issues, very inquisitive, and highly, highly intelligent,” Wyatt said. “Terry has always been very good about being able to work through the process, look at the issues from every angle, and come up with the best possible solutions.”

Always on the go

As if his committee and task force work weren’t enough, Davis, an avid cyclist, volunteers at the YMCA to lead cycling classes on Thursday nights and pitches in with its Try the Y Club. He leads triathalon-type training races on Monday evenings, which dovetail into cyclocross racing.

Davis also is a devoted family man. He and his wife, Kathleen, whom he met at Eastern Washington University, have been married for 17 years. They have one child, 8-year-old Hannah, who is in the third grade at Ilalko Elementary.

Davis was born in Tacoma in 1969, one of four boys and three girls. After graduating from Wilson High School in 1987, he took his first job, as a vendor at Tacoma’s Cheney Stadium, where he hawked nuts, coffee, cola and other sundries to the crowd. He said the job taught him about working independently – and something else.

“Get ya peanuts right here, red hawt peanuts, ice cold Coke,” said Davis demonstrating the New York accent he used on the job.

Davis went on to graduate from EWU in 1993 with a degree in urban and regional planning. He then worked five years as a land-use planner for the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Pendleton, Ore.

“That job taught me a lot about dealing with different cultures and about diversity,” said Davis.

Davis returned to the Puget Sound area in 1998, working for TCI, AT&T and Comcast. He manages the franchises the company has with cities so it can work within the rights of way.

Building a network

A key part of his job is community affairs, that is, building regionally-significant relationships within the community and with elected officials.

“True, it’s not land-use planning,” Davis said. “But there are elements of it in terms of knowing how to be independent and work through the process. I would say regarding my involvement with the Chamber and SSCCLC that a lot of those things fall back into the planning realm, how you get involved in communities and business versus regulation and that sort of stuff.”

His office is in Auburn, Davis said, which probably makes him more active in this community, but he said his involvement with the SSCCLC allows him to work throughout the whole South Sound region.

“The South Sound Chambers of Commerce Legislative Coalition is 10 chambers that have come together to advocate on behalf of business for regionally-significant issues such as transportation at the federal, state, and local levels,” said Davis. “Transportation is really the glue that brings us together. It is about seeing State Route 167 built out, it’s about working with the Port of Seattle on the interchange north with 405-509, it’s about working with the federal government on the Highway 18-Interstate 5 triangle to make sure that it is built out so we can get around in the South Sound Region.

“I have truly been blessed with a job that allows me to be actively involved in the communities that I serve,” Davis said.