Mark Davis has fond memories of growing up in Fayetteville. He has his swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday.

Now that Mark Davis has become an associate justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court, two of the high court’s justices have roots in Fayetteville.

They are Davis and Chief Justice Cheri Beasley. Beasley spent the first years of her legal and judicial career here, and her husband’s family is from this area.

Davis, 52, was born in Jacksonville. His family moved to Fayetteville when he was 8 years old, he said this week, and he graduated from E.E. Smith High School in 1984.

“Even though I was not born in Fayetteville, I certainly think of it as my hometown, and I’m proud of it, and I like to come back whenever I can,” he said.

Gov. Roy Cooper appointed Davis to the Supreme Court last month. Following a private swearing in ceremony, Davis said, he has been reading legal briefs and otherwise working prior to his first session of oral arguments.

A public investiture ceremony for Davis is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday in Raleigh.

The family business brought the Davis family to Fayetteville in 1975, he said. His father owned a pawnshop in Jacksonville and two in Fayetteville, “and he was spending most of his time there and realized that it probably made more sense to live there and avoid the commute.”

The family had Park-n-Pawn on Bragg Boulevard and Uncle Sam’s Pawn Shop on Murchison Road, Davis said.

Neither shop still exists in Fayetteville, although a Park-n-Pawn still operates in Jacksonville.

The public perception of Fayetteville in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly among outsiders, firmly rooted its “Fayettenam” reputation as a land of strip clubs, prostitution, vice and other crime. That negativity was far from Davis’ experience.

He and his two older siblings were raised in a middle-class neighborhood off McPherson Church Road near Westwood Shopping Center. Davis said he played sports in the neighborhood and on a little league team, spent many hours in the libraries and has many happy memories.

“I loved Fayetteville. I really thought it was just an ideal place to grow up,” Davis said. He got upset when he got to college and heard classmates bash the city. They were wrong, he said. “The people were so friendly, it was a big enough city, but there was enough to do, but like you say, it still had that small-town feel to it.

“And so I always defended it, because I think it’s worthy of being complimented.”

E.E. Smith Principal John Griffin was a strong influence on Davis in his teen years, he said.

“He’s still one of my heroes,” Davis said. “He obviously went on to be a very successful superintendent, but he was my high school principal.”

Griffin made sure the students showed respect to each other, Davis said. “He ran a tight ship, but he did it in a caring way.”

The loyalty of the alumni is overwhelming, Davis said, with the football field packed with alumni every year at homecoming.

The school had Davis speak to the students several years ago, and he said he hopes to do so many times again.

Davis left Fayetteville for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1984, where he became drawn to a legal career and moved on to law school there.

He remembers reading about legal issues in the news and in the legislature, “and I was just really fascinated by, and tried to learn as much as I could, about those issues,” he said. “There were two sides to every issue, and it was important to understand as much as you could about each side and try to make an informed decision about what side you were on.”

After graduating law school, Davis was a clerk for a federal judge, and then did civil litigation for 13 years at the Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice law firm. He later was a special deputy attorney general in the North Carolina Department of Justice and for about two years was the general counsel for Gov. Bev Perdue.

He lives in Raleigh with his wife, Marcia, and they have three children.

Perdue appointed Davis to the N.C. Court of Appeals in 2012 to the seat that Beasley, North Carolina’s new chief justice, had vacated for an associate justice seat on the N.C. Supreme Court.

Now that Beasley has moved from associate justice to chief justice, Davis is taking her former associate justice seat. Davis said Beasley has been a mentor and a friend and it is an honor to serve with her.

Lawyers will begin arguing their cases before Davis and the rest of the Supreme Court on Monday. The first scheduled case is from Fayetteville, and the first lawyer scheduled to appear is Fayetteville lawyer Neil Yarborough.

Yarborough represents a married couple that wants to operate a gun range in the Vander area. They are suing the Cumberland County government for blocking their plans. The county says the county zoning code doesn’t permit gun ranges on their property.

Davis is excited about that first day. Serving on the court involves considering the law at its purest, he said. It’s something he loves.

“The first time I walk into the courtroom as a justice for my first oral argument — that’s just going to be one of those thrills that I will remember for the rest of my life,” Davis said. “Frankly, I think every time I walk into that courtroom, no matter how many years I’m privileged to be here, it will be a thrill. But I think the very first time will be the biggest thrill of all.”

Staff writer Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3512.