A native Atlantan, Davis graduated from Northside High School and went to the University of North Carolina, but having joined the Naval Reserve, his studies were cut short by the Vietnam War when there was an urgent call for radar and electronics countermeasures specialists. Returning from Vietnam in 1965 Davis went to work full time to support his growing family having married his UNC sweetheart shortly before leaving for Viet Nam and returned to her and a one-year-old son.

Davis enrolled at Georgia State, graduated with a BA in Marketing and then a Master's of Insurance, and in 1972 became a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter. Means had a lengthy and impressive insurance career during which time he owned two separate insurance firms, and co-authored a two-volume manual published by the National Underwriter Company, the leading technical publisher for the insurance industry. He also had the opportunity to "plow new ground" as a charter member of the Young Agents (Committee) of the Georgia Association of Independent Insurance Agents. This concept promoting the elevation of the insurance profession through education and service to the insurance profession in Georgia has been adopted in most states in the United States.

Davis became a Rotarian with the Atlanta Rotary Club in 1986, and moved to the Rotary Club of Buckhead in 1988. Davis has served as a director and been active in the Georgia Rotary Student Program (serving as host family three times), Habitat for Humanity, District Conferences, Apples for Teachers, the President's Ball committee, the Caring Hands Committee and the Rotary Club of Buckhead's basketball league as the principal "official" scorekeeper for the past 17 years. He is currently the club secretary and president-nominee.

Davis' other passion is sailing and his first love is the Snipe Class. He started sailing Snipes in 1959 at the Atlanta Yacht Club on Lake Allatoona and raced actively on a local, regional, national and international level until 1989 when forced by Ankylosing Spondylitis to give up competitive dinghy racing.

Throughout his racing career and to this date, Davis has been very active in race management working at the Atlanta Yacht Club, and on a national and international level with one design dinghies, and keel-boat races including Olympic Classes regattas leading to the Olympic Games for Yachting in Savannah. Davis worked on a three-man team as the race management oversight committee and Field of Play coordinators for the 1996 Olympic Yachting Games in Savannah. He is a Certified Regional Race Officer certified by US SAILING and is currently the chairman of the Appeals Committee for the Dixie Inland Yacht Racing Association, a Regional Sailing Association of US SAILING. He is also a member of the US SAILING Judges Committee and chair of the Judges Training & Testing Working Party for the US SAILING Judges Committee. He also serves on the US SAILING Working Party for Classifiers for Disabled Sailors, and the Risk Management Committee of US SAILING.