Building's Name Honors Longtime Leader of ACT

“It was indeed overwhelming,” Davidsen said. “My heart has been in ACT for a long time, and I have had many gratifying experiences over the years seeing ACT succeed. But this is beyond my imagination. I will forever remain humbled, but indeed most grateful and proud.”

Growing up in Denmark, Davidsen never imagined that a building in America would be named in his honor. But that was before a 26-year career that saw Davidsen, as one of ACT’s early leaders, provide direction in the company’s formative years. Working with founders E. F. Lindquist, Ted McCarrel, and others, Davidsen began to develop the structure of the organization, and build the expertise and systems necessary to run a world-class educational measurement and research organization.

Davidsen saw ACT through years of substantial change. When he joined in 1962, a handful of ACT employees worked with outside vendors to produce an early version of the ACT Assessment®. Davidsen remembers some of the company’s activities being contracted to an organization in Chicago. Bringing them under ACT’s control was important to the founders and made a big difference for the company.

“With all due respect to Chicago, the labor force that was available to ACT in Iowa City was beyond compare,” he said. “It’s been a tremendous asset for ACT. One of the major reasons for ACT's success has been the typical worker who has come to work at ACT. I cannot recall a single instance in the years I was at ACT when if a student, parent, or counselor had some problem, our staff didn’t stick with it, or solve it, or at least bring about some sort of solution before going home.”

When Davidsen left in 1988, not only did ACT have its own test development, operations, and research experts to produce and administer the ACT Assessment, it was offering many new programs and heading in new directions. By then, ACT was offering PLAN^® for tenth graders, administering such client-owned professional certification assessments as the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and the Automotive Service Excellence Exam (ASE), and processing financial aid applications for the federal government, among other activities.

Davidsen helped plan for ACT's growth by acquiring the 250-acre campus upon which ACT sits today. In the 1970s, he agreed to buy two farms adjacent to the Lindquist building. He says it was way too much land, “but it was all or nothing.” Now the Tyler and Davidsen buildings sit on that land. It was that vision for the future that encouraged the ACT Board of Directors to name the building in Davidsen's honor.

Davidsen and his wife, Penny, have lived in Iowa City for more than 40 years. Davidsen does translation work for The University of Iowa, spends as much time as he can on the golf course, and travels with Penny.