J. Walker Coleman Jr., banker and community leader, dies

James Walker Coleman Jr., former senior vice-president of First National Bank of South Carolina, Charleston office, died Wednesday. He was 94.

Born Sept. 7, 1918, in Charleston, he was the son of James Walker Coleman and Felicia Chisolm Coleman. He graduated from Sewanee: University of the South in 1940 and joined the Navy in 1941. Before resigning as a lieutenant commander in 1947, he served during World War II on the aircraft carrier Chaumont and was captain of a submarine chaser and a patrol craft. He also taught naval Reserve Officer Training Corps courses at the University of South Carolina.

Coleman’s decades-long banking career began as a cashier with The First National Bank of Memphis, Tenn. He was named assistant vice president with The First National Bank of South Carolina in Charleston in 1951 and went on to become vice president, then senior vice president in 1972. When the bank reorganized its regions in 1983, he was promoted as the first coastal region executive. In 1984, he became the chairman of the board for Liberty National Bank.

Coleman was an active board member with numerous local organizations, including St. Francis Xavier and Roper hospitals, Spoleto USA, the Gibbes Museum, Historic Charleston Foundation and the Charleston chapter of the American Red Cross.

He is survived by his wife, Anne Frizelle Coleman, three sons, two daughters, eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

A service will be held Monday at 11 a.m. at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Charleston.

Arrangements are being handled by Stuhr’s Downtown Chapel.