Rose Garden Resident
Cover Story
Photograph by Vicki Thompson
Winning Race: John Davis' 1992 Pontiac Monte Carlo races at the Taylor Woodrow Grand Prix in July. Davis uses his cars to help raise money for the Canary Foundation, which benefits from the San Jose Grand Prix.
Car enthusiasts honored for giving $2 million
Davis duo helps local nonprofits
By Paul Lukes
Christine and John Davis may not be household names, but the San Jose couple have given $2 million to more than 50 children's charities and nonprofit groups over the past 21 years through their organization, Air Systems Foundations Inc.
And while friends will tell you the couple prefer to remain out of the spotlight, their efforts have not gone unnoticed. The Boy Scouts of America selected the Davises to receive the 2006 Distinguished Citizens Award at a tribute dinner at the Fairmont Hotel on Nov. 15. Over the past 30 years, this prestigious award has been given to the biggest names in local philanthropy.
"Christine and John are true philanthropists. They don't expect anything in return. They are lovely people," says Marilee Jennings, associate executive director of the Children's Discovery Museum, which received the first of John Davis' donations in 1986.
Typical of their giving is Messenger VI, the sixth in the fleet of Air Systems Foundation's vehicles that provide mobile medical care in the community.
While visiting the South Bay Children's Medical Center, Christine saw an old bus the clinic was using and realized that Air Systems could help.
Last September, her dream came true with a passionate purple van--Messenger VI. The South Bay Mobile Health Clinic is now on the road every weekend and many nights during the week, bringing health care to the streets for at-risk kids.
"This endeavor brings joy in so many ways, including that fact that the Messenger VI and its fine doctors saved the life of a 18-month-old boy four months ago," Christine says.
John and Christine's story of charitable work began 21 years ago with a barbecue John gave in the corporation yard of his heating and air conditioning company on Stockton Avenue for his friends to show off their vintage cars. The event grew and evolved into a fundraiser for local nonprofits. When the show outgrew the space, they moved the barbecue to the San Jose History Park at Kelley Park. Now 2,500 to 3,000 people attend the one-day event.
"Our industry was booming, and guys were buying all kinds of cars. We pulled together 28 for that first barbecue, but I wasn't one of them," John says.
Steve Tedesco, executive director of Boys & Girls Clubs of Silicon Valley, was present.
"I didn't know John, but I knew one of his technicians, who invited me. We had sausage and mugs of beer. It was a grand old time and a simple beginning to what's become a day long festival."
John and his friends knew a good party when they threw one.
"We began repeating the barbecue and car show every year, and the third year, I saw it as a great opportunity to raise money for nonprofits. I was on the board of the Children's Discovery Museum at the time, so the first funds went to them," John says.
With the Air Systems Car Show as its primary source of funding, Christine founded the Air Systems Foundation in 1997 to meet the needs of children in the community.
The car show has been popular, Tedesco says, because kids are attracted by cars they've never seen. Plus there's all the food, entertainment, music and activities for them.
"I had thought I was going to be a stay-at-home mom after our son, Cole, was born, but the person who had been handling the car show had to leave unexpectedly, and I got the job," says Christine, who grew up in New Mexico and Texas in a cattle-ranching family.
Christine became involved in coordinating and marketing the show in 1989, and it grew exponentially.
"The first one I was involved with netted $13,000. We changed to a biennial event and netted $40,000. In 2005, the committee reached their goal of $300,000," she says.
Business Start-up
John has always had a love affair with cars. After a tour of duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Army, John graduated from San José State University in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in industrial technology.
"My father had been an auto mechanic, and I always remembered the favorable things he said about air conditioning. When I was getting ready to graduate, I was looking in the job placement office and saw an opening in the field, so I applied."
His first job out of school was marketing for the Trane Company, which manufactures heating, ventilating, air conditioning and building management equipment and systems.
"I saw how the businesses I was dealing with were being run, and I knew I could be successful," John says.
His first partner, Don Isaacson, sold his Ford Pinto, and John pulled together all the funds he could. The two founded Air Systems in 1974 on a $15,000 investment.
The company's 2005 fiscal year value was $50 million, according to the Business Journal's Book of Lists.
The Car Club
Although he had an Austin-Healy sports car in college before he went into the military, it wasn't until after John established his business that his interest in exotic cars returned--with an Austin-Healy.
"It took us three years to turn the 1953 wreck into a 600 horsepower, Corvette-engine, twin-turbo, very exciting machine," John says.
And while the Austin-Healy has been featured in several magazines, it is John's second car, a retired NASCAR racer that never fails to attract huge crowds, wherever he shows it--a 1980 Buick that was driven by Buddy Baker.
"I believe it's the car he drove when he was the first driver to break the 200 mph barrier at the Talladega Super Speedway in Alabama," John says.
"Baker also won 19 cup races, including the 1980 Dayton 500, and 40 poles, though not all in this car. But this is a car with real history," John says, proudly showing the bright red "Uno" emblazoned car in his spacious garage/workshop that also houses several other vintage stock cars, his Indianapolis race car, a 1931 Stutz convertible and an air-cooled 1929 Franklin--his "Bonnie and Clyde" car.
John and a group of like-minded friends formed the Historic Stock Car Racing Series in 1996 to restore, preserve and compete in former NASCAR stock cars. The group and its cars have no connection to the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.
"We want to see these historic thoroughbreds on a racetrack and not in a museum," John says. "Only in friendly competition can these classic stock cars be best displayed for all racing enthusiasts to enjoy. They are a form of living history."
At the heart of its activities, the racing club believes in giving back to the community. Members focus particularly on fundraising activities for such charities as the Canary Fund, a nonprofit California corporation dedicated to reducing the impact of cancer by supporting efforts to establish new tools for early detection of the disease.
The Canary Fund has benefited from the San José Grand Prix, and John and his friends have participated in their stock cars in the first two race events.
As the survivor of a rare cancer syndrome called pseudomyxoma peritonei, John has a very personal reason for supporting the Canary Fund's research.
"I want to learn more about what they are doing, and raise as much as possible at the races for them," he says.
John's participation in the corporate go-cart race helped raise $200,000. He also won the competition, beating Paul Newman in the process.
For more information about Systems Air Group Foundation, visit asifoundation.org.
