Hazel & Al Colvin

Al Colvin (June 29, 1922 – February 7, 2008)  &                                           Hazel Colvin (June 6, 1924 – March 9, 2016)

Al Colvin grew up in Laredo, Texas, speaking Spanish before English, and came to Kitsap County to join his brother. Drafted in 1944, he trained as a fighter pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen; the war ended before he flew a mission. At Tuskegee he met Hazel Jones, and after the war, back in Bremerton, he sent for her to join him. They married in 1946 and raised four daughters in Sinclair Heights, and Al spent 35 years at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as a planner and estimator. Hazel was his partner in the credit union, their church and their community work through 61 years of marriage.

The Colvins helped organize an NAACP credit union to address barriers to borrowing for Black residents; according to their daughter, the institution, later called Peoples Credit Union, eventually held $1 million in assets. Al also started a scholarship fund for local students. After retiring from the shipyard in 1980, he was elected to the Bremerton City Council in 1985, one of the first African Americans to serve, and won re-election twice.

Sources and further reading: an obituary excerpt in the museum’s earlier biography (original publication unconfirmed); Andrew Binion, “Bremerton civic pioneer Al Colvin dies at 85,” Kitsap Sun, February 10, 2008; Kitsap Daily News, March 28, 2008.

Museum note: Sources differ on Al Colvin’s birth date: June 29, 1922 (Kitsap Daily News, March 28, 2008) or June 6, 1922 (Kitsap Sun, February 10, 2008).

Photo at top: from Al Colvin’s 2008 funeral program; collection of the Kitsap History Museum, 2008.002.015.001.