William Putnam Colvin III “Bill”
Bill Colvin, 84, of Mount Dora passed away peacefully on September 04, 2021. Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1937 to Elsie and Dr. William P. Colvin II, the late Vice President and Medical Director of the pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome. Bill was raised in New Rochelle, New York and attended both Cornell University and Columbia for their schools of business. Bill met his wife Janette Murray of Wallasey, England in 1965 while Janette was working as the head Secretary at the Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan where Bill attended a business function at the hotel. It was love at first sight. Shortly after, they started Corporate Seminars and Presidents Publishing Company in Manhattan where Bill had articles written about his immediate success in both Times Magazine and Business Week in 1968.
Bill moved his wife and 3 young girls to Apopka, Florida in 1975 to begin a new business venture in the foliage business. He started Foliage Corporation of Florida with Janette and both ran the business up until retiring in the late 1990’s. Bill was an avid fisherman and traveled the world in pursuit of catching the big ones. But he was a bass fisherman at heart and appreciated the quality of lakes that Central Florida had to offer.
But Bill’s greatest love was his family. He would have been married to Janette for 53 years this October 05, but never could recover from losing his oldest daughter Deborah Colvin Keidser on June 27, 2021. He is survived by his wife Janette Colvin of Mt. Dora and his daughters Susan and Allison, his four grandchildren and a very large and loving extended family.