Civic leader Cobbins dies from COVID-19
Memphis civic leader Donnell Cobbins Jr., a quiet force in the city’s business community, died Friday after being infected by COVID-19.
Cobbins, 49, had grown up in South Memphis with his brother and mother, a room service manager at The Peabody hotel who put him through the exclusive Memphis University School, setting in motion a career that would stand out in a city trying to shake off the long hold of segregation.
Darrell Cobbins, former chairman of Memphis Light Gas Water Division, confirmed his older brother’s death.
“He just took a nosedive on Friday,” Darrell Cobbins said.
The death stopped short the life of a community leader intent on larger civic service after being groomed by an earlier generation striving to move Black Memphians into the city’s social and economic mainstream.
Although the expensive Memphis University School’s tuition was beyond the reach of most Memphians, white or Black, the Cobbins brothers were among the handful of high-achieving African American students enrolled in the school in the 1980s. The brothers had been educated in their earlier years at Catholic schools in Memphis.
The popular and energetic Donnell Cobbins went on to run for MUS class office. Although he didn’t win, his brother recalls the election campaign impressed administrators and students and helped set the stage for the election of Black students in subsequent years. Through it all, he maintained his grades.
“It was my mother’s doing,” he said of Shirley Peace. “She wanted us to have a quality education. All the kudos go to her for having the foresight to set high standards. As kids we wondered, ‘Why are we doing this?’ But she had a vision and she made it happen.’’
Donnell Roosevelt Cobbins Jr., who would have turned 50 in February, stepped onto the larger business scene in his 30s organizing keynote conferences around the theme of Black entrepreneurs. More recently, he ran for public office, seeking seats on the Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commission, and was executive assistant to the Shelby County Trustee, specializing in the campaign aimed at relieving blight in city neighborhoods.
Following the lead of his father, the late Donnell Cobbins Sr., a senior deacon at Eternal Peace Missionary Baptist Church near Downtown, he became ordained and served as a pastor at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church. The elder Cobbins, himself remembered as a student leader at Lemoyne-owen College in Memphis during the tumultuous strike in 1968 by city sanitation workers, also set the tone for political involvement,
A decade ago, Donnell Cobbins Jr.’s work at promoting Black business ownership was prescient and preceded recent efforts by the Greater Memphis Chamber, Shelby County and the city of Memphis aimed at building wealth, jobs and entrepreneurs among Black citizens.
His mother’s father, the late Samuel Peace, had built Peace Realty into a prominent firm in Memphis. Naturally, the two brothers went into the same field. Darrell Cobbins started Universal Commercial Real Estate, a firm which the Tri-state Defender newspaper singled out a decade ago as “the only African American-owned and run commercial real estate entity in the Memphis area.”
In 2011, when the brothers were partners in Universal, Donnell Cobbins launched monthly regional breakfasts between entrepreneurs and accomplished potential mentors. For one breakfast, Eugene Duffy, former deputy chief administrative officer for the city of Atlanta, was invited to discuss the strategy Atlanta used to accelerate economic growth.
“The entrepreneurial spirit is at the core of most any major city’s success,” Donnell told the Tri-state Defender just before the Duffy session. “It’s the fuel on which the city runs. I’d love to see Memphis reach its maximum potential and assume it’s rightful place among other choice cities.”
In 2014, Cobbins was in the middle of the five-way race for Shelby County Commission District 11 and garnered 15% of the votes cast. The next year he ran for City Council District 4. After the polls closed he took an even-handed view on his Facebook page, saying: “I honestly believe it’s ok to lose, as long as you give 100%. I’m proud of the race we ran and thankful to all of you who supported us!”
By then, he had been hired by Shelby County Trustee David Lenoir as a property reclamation specialist at the center of the effort to fend off blight and rebuild worn neighborhoods.
In the position, he was a liaison between the trustee’s office, neighborhood groups and neighborhood community development agencies. When a broader Blight Elimination Compact was formed in 2016 among various agencies, Cobbins served on the original steering committee and subsequently was named to the board of the new Blight Authority of Memphis.
Over the years, he was also appointed to the Downtown Parking Authority board, the Memphis Little League board, joined the civic group 100 Black Men of Memphis and was named a fellow of the New Memphis Institute. He most recently was employed as a manager at Dufrense Spencer Group, which does business as Ashley Furniture.
He leaves a son and daughter. Going far beyond the two-bedroom house on South Parkway where he had grown up, Donnell Cobbin’s civic career was cut short.
“He had such a touch with people. People warmed to him,” his brother said. “I think the people who know us well, and have known us well, they know how much he has done in his life.”