Colonial Savings Founder, Chairman Emeritus Jimmy DuBose Passes Away
James S. “Jimmy” DuBose, who founded Colonial Savings FA, Fort Worth, Texas, served as its chairman for many years and hired current Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman David Motley, CMB, died on Dec. 1. He was 93.
Colonial Savings issued a release saying Mr. DuBose had passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, following a year-long battle with cancer.
Mr. DuBose served as Chairman Emeritus of Colonial Savings, Colonial National Mortgage, Colonial Life Insurance Company of Texas, Colonial Mortgage Insurance and DuBose & Associates Insurance Agency. He continued to play an active role in these businesses until his death.
A Fort Worth, Texas, resident since the age of 12, Jimmy DuBose was born July 25, 1924, in Georgetown to Edwin A. DuBose Jr. and Frances Barcus DuBose. While still a teen, he also went into the business of making canvas-back lawn chairs in an uncle’s woodshop. After graduation from Arlington Heights High School in 1941, he served in Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets until the onset of World War II. He was a B-17 and B-29 bomber pilot in the Army Air Corps during the war, then attended TCU and graduated from UT Austin with a business degree in 1949. After graduation, Jimmy was in the sawmill business in East Texas and then joined Reeves & Fitzgerald Insurance Agency.
Mr. DuBose founded Fort Worth Mortgage Corp. in 1952 to provide residential home loans to the growing post-World War II communities of North Central Texas. The one-man shop grew steadily over the next 20 years. In 1971, Jimmy acquired Colonial Savings & Loan of Lewisville, which allowed him to expand his insurance and mortgage business. Colonial Savings/FWMC was among the first home lenders in the nation to offer low down payment loans.
During the savings and loan financial crisis of the 1980s, Colonial Savings remained sound under Mr. Dubose’s leadership by focusing on single-family home loans, personal banking and insurance instead of speculative commercial opportunities. In 1982, he started CU Members Mortgage, a division dedicated to providing credit unions nationwide with mortgage origination and servicing. Today, the Colonial family of companies is a national financial corporation with more than 750 employee colleagues.
Mr. DuBose was a member of the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association, Mortgage Bankers Association and served as a member of the Texas Wesleyan University Board of Trustees. He was the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including induction in 1998 into the Fort Worth Business Hall of Fame, an Honorary Doctoral Degree from TWU in 2012, TWU’s Honorary Alumni Award 2014, and the Texas Mortgage Bankers Association’s Larry E. Temple Distinguished Service Award in 2013. In 2017, the Fort Worth Independent School District unanimously voted to name the auditorium of Stripling Middle School, Jimmy’s alma mater as a boy, the “Jimmy DuBose Auditorium” in recognition of the countless ways he supported the teachers and students at the school.
Mr. DuBose was preceded in death by his wife of 53 years, Joy Grimes DuBose; daughter, Gwynne DuBose Keyland; and brothers, Edwin A. DuBose, III, John Barcus DuBose, and William Shelton DuBose. Survivirs include his wife, Caroll Holliday DuBose; son and current Colonial Chairman, Jim DuBose and wife, Tori Adams; grandchildren, Christopher Keyland and wife, Brittany, of Austin; Kate Roberts of Aspen, Colo., Anna DuBose and fiancé Peter Morrissey, of New York, N.Y., and Jamie DuBose of Oakland, Calif.; great-grandchildren, Sean, June and James Keyland, and Trip and Ella Roberts; stepdaughters, Jennifer Beedlow and husband, Mark, Amy Moody and husband, Jim, Marla Allred and husband, Mark, and their families; and a host of extended family, friends and colleagues.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to the Texas Wesleyan University Piano Fund at www.txwes.edu/steinwaypiano.
