BENJAMIN J. ‘BEN’ DAVENPORT JR.

Ben Davenport has followed in the footsteps of his father, who founded Davenport Energy in 1941.

With seven regional offices, Davenport Energy employs 175 people and supplies propane, fuel oil and other petroleum products to more than 30,000 customers throughout Southern, Southwest and Central Virginia and North Carolina. The company also supplies gasoline and diesel fuel to more than 300 convenience stores.

Back in the late 1960s, Davenport went on a sales call to Goodyear Tire and Rubber in Danville. The purchasing agent complained that Goodyear was no longer allowed to take waste to the landfill.

“And I said, ‘Oh, I can handle it,’” Davenport recalls in a video about the origins of First Piedmont Corp., the waste management and recycling business he started because of that meeting. Davenport is also chairman of that company, which runs a 250-acre industrial landfill in Pittsylvania County.

A longtime force in the community, Davenport sits on numerous boards including Hargrave Military Academy, the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research and the Virginia Growth and Opportunity Board.

With his wife, Betty, Davenport donated $1 million to the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education in 2016 to bolster training for early childhood educators.

A 1960 graduate of Hargrave, Davenport earned a business degree at Virginia Tech and served in the U.S. Coast Guard.

He is a past rector for Virginia Tech. In 2016, the university awarded him the William H. Ruffner Medal, which recognizes individuals who have performed notable and distinguished service to the university.