DANIEL E. COLEMAN

1950 - 2020

COLEMAN, Daniel E. Former Banker and Private Equity Investor Dan Coleman passed away on Saturday, May 16, 2020, as a result of complications due to a stroke. Dan was born in the challenging circumstances that confronted a young person growing up in Tampa's historically black communities under Jim Crow in the 1950s and 60s. With the support of a strong family, and teachers and mentors who recognized his talent and potential, Dan found an opportunity to attend Phillips Academy Andover and then Tufts University – a long way from home, in every sense. Through his own innate ability, and aided by the education he gained at Tufts, Dan went on to accomplish extraordinary things. Tufts always held a central place in Dan's great heart, going back to his undergraduate days as a student organizer (and a trouble-maker, as he would say) when Dan helped lead protests by Tufts' Afro-American Society and Afro-American groups from nearby colleges against the racist hiring practices at the construction company the university had hired to build a new dormitory - practices that were common at the time. Those protests succeeded in securing the university's commitment to 20% minority employment on the site. Dan went on to build a long and successful career at the First National Bank of Boston, ultimately helping to create and then managing a $100-million private equity fund focused on investing in women- and minority-owned businesses and businesses in low- and moderate-income areas, creating value for the bank while also helping to create wealth and generate economic development in historically disadvantaged communities. Throughout his long career, Dan contributed his wise guidance to dozens of entrepreneurs and their companies and served as a mentor to many young men and women. As a result, Dan's contributions are immeasurable, as are the esteem and the affection his friends and colleagues hold for him. After Dan's retirement, he returned to Tampa where he joined the Saturday Morning Breakfast Group. He also served as a board member of the Allen Temple Neighborhood Corporation and many other grassroots organizations. He is survived by his loving and devoted sister Betty, his brother Stanley, and by many members of his extended family and friends. Dan's sister has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations should be sent to the scholarship fund that his friends have created in Dan's honor at Tufts, his beloved alma mater: the Daniel E. Coleman, A'73, Scholarship Fund. In creating this scholarship fund, it is our hope that it will help to provide to future generations the same opportunity that Dan found: the opportunity that a first class education offers to advance the potential in talented young people from similar backgrounds. Words cannot express how much Dan meant to so many; his infectious enthusiasm, his keen intellect, his broad erudition, and his impish sense of humor were a constant delight to all who knew him. We will cherish the memory of his remarkable life, and of our time together, always. A Funeral Service will be private.

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