MU| F e a t u r e s
J
im Colon ’74 never forgets where he
came from.
Gary, Ind., in the 1960s and early ’70s
was a particular place in a particular
time, and it informs his particular and
ongoing journey. The Manchester University
trustee – retired now from Toyota, where he
worked for 36 years and was most recently
vice president for African-American business
strategy – grew up in a working class family
in a working class steel town, and he attended
Manchester during a time of awakening social
conscience.
He has lived a life of service that owes much
to both.
“I would say internally it comes from a
sense of wanting to help others. And also
feeling a little bit fortunate,” Colon says of
his devotion to community outreach. “I look
at where I started, and for a kid that grows
up in a steel town in northwest Indiana, you
may or may not think that you’re gonna have
an opportunity to do much beyond those
borders, unless you expand your thoughts.
So I consider myself so fortunate to have
had the opportunity to be exposed to so
many different things, and I try to deliver that
message to others.”
He’s done so in a variety of ways.
In addition to his work with Toyota, Colon
sat on the board of directors of The Black
Star Project, a Chicago-based community
organization committed to improving the
quality of life for African-Americans and
Latinos’ academic achievement. He’s served
on the board of First Tee of South Los
Angeles, an outreach group that uses golf
to provide educational programs for largely
African-American youths.
For his work, he was named in 2013 as one
of Los Angeles Most Influential African-
American Movers And Shakers by the Los
Angeles Wave Publishing Group. And he’s
the recipient of honorary degrees from
Grambling State University and Martin
University.
It’s all a product, again, of both place and
time, which for Colon includes Manchester
in the 1970s.
A graduate of Gary Roosevelt High School,
he initially attended Ohio University in
Athens, Ohio, before transferring to
Manchester in 1971 because he wanted to
be closer to home, and because a counselor
at Roosevelt had recommended Manchester.
“You know how it is when you’re young
and looking for someplace to go to school,”
Colon recalls. “I think I kind of stumbled
here into Manchester.”
Like a lot of college campuses in the early
’70s, it was a time of transition. A year
before Colon arrived, African-American
students had staged a sit-in at Petersime
Chapel to push for an intercultural center.
“I did interact with people who were here at
the time,” Colon says. “It was a time where
there were many dialogues going on on
college campuses all across the country –
dialogues about equality, access, how people
were going to interact with one another.
And all of those dialogues weren’t always
smooth dialogues.
That especially might have been the case
at Manchester – where producing not just
graduates but graduates with a commitment to
improving the world around them has always
been a point of emphasis.
“That’s part of the mission, developing people
of ability and conviction,” Colon says. “I don’t
think that always happens in the classroom. I
think a lot of that is what we experience in a
community of individuals where we’re all tied
together. And how we see ourselves beyond
those borders.
“We’re only gonna be at a college campus,
hopefully, a defined period of time. What are
you gonna do with the rest of your time? What
are you gonna do with the rest of your lives?
What kind of impact do you want to have on
others, and is that your main focus? How do
you make your own neighborhood better, and
how do you interact with other people and
make sure people walk away with a positive
experience?”
Jim Colon, surely, has asked all those questions.
And as both a Manchester graduate and a man
of his time and place, he has answered them to
the fullest extent of his ability.
“(I try to say) ‘Hey, think about yourself in
terms you probably never visualized,’” he says.
“I think that message kind of resonates with
young people. Just to challenge them to do
more than you think you can today.”
By Benjamin Smith
“There were difficult discussions taking
place in a world that was just changing so,
so rapidly all the time. It was an interesting
time.”
Manchester | 31