From C Student to the C Suite, Clayt Daley '73 Supports Davidson Initiatives and Names Martin Court Housing

Clayt Daley ’73 wasn’t an honor student at Davidson College, but he did have a knack for economics and bridge, and says what he learned during those four years set him up for a successful life.

Daley excelled in grad school, earned an MBA and rose to become the vice chairman and chief financial officer for Procter & Gamble. In retirement, he co-founded Winner’s Circle Winery on the Sonoma Coast and has remained involved on the boards of several companies and non-profit organizations.  

Today, the formerly named Martin Court Apartment B is now the Daley Residence Hall. This naming recognizes a generous $1.5 million gift from Daley and his wife, Meredythe, which will be used in support of the college’s highest priorities.  

“I used to tell anyone who came to me for fundraising that, if you’re lucky, your life has three stages,” he said. “In the first stage, you’re trying to make a living, get by, support your family. The second stage allows you to hopefully start thinking about what you want to do in the future, maybe set up some estate plans. And then if all goes well, you get to stage three, which is where we are now. You can start to let some money go while you’re still living. We’ve used parts of stage two and three to support all the academic institutions we’ve been a part of.” 

Daley attended a church-based boarding school and grew up in a strict household. Davidson gave him his first taste of freedom, and he loved it. Perhaps, though, the freedom distracted him from earning top grades.  

“I didn’t do all that well in class, but I played a lot of bridge in college and represented Davidson with three other students in a collegiate bridge tournament,” he said. “You can learn a lot about strategy and intellectual capacity and forward thinking from the game.” 

There was one academic accomplishment, however, he says surprised the heck out of his classmates.  

“Back then, if you were an Econ major, there was this comprehensive oral exam, and they’d bring in the head of the economics department at Duke [University] to give us the test,” he said. “There were 30 of us, and the Duke professor was told to give 10% of us a ‘high honors’ grade, and then the rest would simply pass the test. If anyone was incompetent, he could fail them. So, that means three students were to be given ‘high honors.’ I was one of them.” 

Despite the letter grades on his transcript, Daley decided to buckle down for the next phase of his education. He aced the aptitude test to get into business school, and that set him on a revised academic trajectory. He didn’t earn any more Cs from that point on.  

“I finished up grad school at Ohio State with a 3.9 GPA,” he said. “I learned a lot in business school, but the foundation came from Davidson, from a broad liberal arts education. I learned how to write, how to speak. A lot of my career involved presentations and being on television. Every quarter, I was on CNBC, Bloomberg News, BBC Business … you can’t dismiss the value of a liberal arts education and how that prepared me to think and how to deal with people.”  

Daley likes to remind young people that it’s a long run – what happens during those undergraduate years does not always predict the path one’s life is going to follow. 

“I understand why professors love the ‘A’ students, because they’re probably going to be the next professors and doctors and all,” says Daley, who jokes he was Mr. Mediocre. “The ‘B’ students we can assume will be successful, too. But don’t forget the ‘C’ students. Some of them will surprise you!”