High school name to honor influential board member J. Fred Davis Jr.

December 8, 2025

Northwest ISD will honor an influential longtime school board member and community leader with the naming of its fourth comprehensive high school after J. Fred Davis Jr.

Located between North Riverside Drive and I-35 in Fort Worth, J. Fred Davis Jr. High School resides on land near where a sprawling, nationally recognized dairy farm was once operated by its namesake. The Davis family owned and operated JFD Farms on the site, which spanned both sides of I-35, from 1962 until Mr. Davis passed away in 1998, when they moved the operation to Rhome.

Upon moving to the area, Mr. Davis quickly became involved with local schools and served on the Northwest ISD Board of Trustees from 1964 to 1976. His vision helped chart a path to prepare for tremendous growth throughout the school district. During his tenure, he collaborated with fellow board members C.W. Worthington and Sonny Nance to leverage their community connections and orchestrate the purchase of hundreds of acres for the school district’s central complex – which now serves as home to several districtwide facilities as well as Northwest High School and Pike Middle School.

In addition to his support of local students, Mr. Davis provided guidance and expertise about agriculture and farming to Texas A&M University, his alma mater. He served as a member of two oversight groups at the university, the Animal Science Department’s Advisory Committee and the College of Agriculture’s Development Council. In 1997, Texas A&M named Mr. Davis as the College of Agriculture's Outstanding Alumni award recipient.

On behalf of the family of J. Fred Davis Jr., we are deeply appreciative of this recognition. Dad believed in the power of education and how it could take children forward. We are excited for the vision of this school, and we are proud students for generations will learn and grow under his name.

Dr. Anne Simpson, Daughter of J. Fred Davis Jr.

Mr. Davis and his family ranked among the top dairy farmers and breeders in the United States, winning dozens of awards for their Jersey cows. With a herd ranging from 200 to 300 cows, JFD Farms supplied Fort Worth with 8,000 pounds of milk a day. Earning national recognition for his dairy farming empire, Mr. Davis accepted a nomination from Governor Mark White to serve on the Dairy Advisory Board of the State of Texas and received feature profiles by news outlets such as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and companies such as Kraft Foods.

While the 1,150-acre family farm split itself between two locations across I-35 most of its existence, it originally occupied the land before the interstate highway system expanded into the area. The primary operations of JFD Farms resided on Old Denton Road, near where the same road now becomes North Riverside Drive, the front entry to Davis High School. The Davis family eventually sold their farmland in Fort Worth to Hillwood, which developed it as part of the AllianceTexas master-planned community. Hillwood’s development of the land kickstarted the extreme growth Northwest ISD has experienced for nearly 30 years.

Mr. Davis and his wife, Jeanie, raised two children who attended Northwest ISD schools, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the couple have also attended district schools. Following his death, Mr. Davis’s family remained active in Northwest ISD. His son-in-law, Danny Simpson, served on the Northwest ISD school board from 1997 to 2006, and his daughter, Dr. Anne Simpson, served on the school board from 2013 to 2025.

Davis High School resides in the northern portion of Fort Worth and will open in 2027. Northwest ISD will begin an attendance boundary creation process during the first semester of the 2026-2027 school year to prepare for the school’s opening.