Dr Davenport was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1912. Dr Davenport received both his B.S. (1935) and Ph.D. (1939) California Institute of Technology. Dr Davenport also received a B.A. (1937); B.Sci. (1938) and D.Sc. (1961) from Oxford University. Dr Davenport was a Lilly Research Fellow at the University of Rochester School of Medicine (1939-1940) and Sterling Research Fellow at Yale (1940-1941). Dr Davenport was Instructor at Pennsylvania from 1941-1943 and at Harvard Medical School from 1943-1945. Dr Davenport was Professor in Physiology and Department Chair at the University from 1945-1956. Dr Davenport was later Professor of Physiology at the University of Michigan. Dr Davenport died in 2005