Columbia civic, business leader Jim Leventis dies at 77

Jim Leventis, a Columbia native who left a positive mark in the area’s banking, business, political and civic spheres, died this week at 77. The cause of death was Parkinson’s disease, the family said in a statement.

“In every aspect of his life, he has been a leader for the good of our community – someone who made a difference,” said Bob Coble, former longtime Columbia mayor and a family friend.

“He was a person you went to, either to ask for something or for advice,” said Samuel Tenenbaum, area philanthropist and executive vice president of the Palmetto Health Foundation. “He was a wealth of knowledge about the community and cared deeply for it.”

Leventis after law school worked for Citibank in New York. Once returning to Columbia, he worked for Republic Bank, where he served as president and chairman.

In 1995, Leventis helped found Columbia’s First Community Bank, where he served for 15 years as chairman. He retired in 2009 and was chairman emeritus at the time of his death.

The bank started with 17 employees and two offices, in Lexington and Forest Acres. Today it is a vibrant concern, with 200 employees and traded on NASDAQ.

It has 15 offices around the Midlands and in Augusta and Aiken.

Now, as at its founding, its mission is to be a locally owned bank focused on small local businesses and professionals.

Leventis had vision and expertise, but his major contribution to the bank and its growth was the example he set “by his servant-leadership lifestyle,” said First Community Bank president and CEO Mike Crapps, who along with Leventis founded the bank.

“He put people ahead of everything. There’s a saying, ‘Being kind is more important than being right,’ and that was Jim,” Crapps said. “More than what he did, it was the way he treated people. That is his lasting legacy.”

Leventis was active in numerous areas of local civic life, usually in leadership roles.

At Dreher High School and at the University of South Carolina, he was student body president. He also was elected to the Richland School District 1 school board and Richland County Council, serving as chairman. He was involved, too, with the Greater Columbia Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Boy Scouts of America, the Columbia Rotary Club and the USC Alumni Association.

He also was parish council president at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.

A star athlete from childhood, Leventis also showed leadership skills early. At Dreher High School, he was a member of the 1956 state champion basketball team, student body president, and represented Dreher as governor of Boys State.

and won the Algernon Sydney Sullivan award for service above self, an award many future state leaders have won.

The tall – 6-foot 5-inch – lanky Leventis was known for his love of family and friends. Even late this year, greatly weakened by Parkinson’s disease, he could be seen in a wheelchair at weekly meetings of the Columbia Rotary Club, of which he was a former president, and at events for his grandchildren.

A rare contrast to his string of accomplishments was his defeat in 1988 when he ran as a Democrat against nine-term incumbent U. S. Rep. Floyd Spence, a popular Republican with deep roots in Lexington County.

Although Leventis came closer to beating Spence than any other challenger, he still lost 52-48 percent when the returns came in from Lexington County.

Spence had refused to debate Leventis in that race; Leventis, then 50, was endorsed editorially by The State newspaper, which praised his political, civic and banking experience. “His style is that of a negotiator and a facilitator, and that ought to work well in Congress, particularly after he gets the necessary seasoning,” the editorial noted.

Matt Kennell, president and CEO of Columbia’s City Center Partnership, said Wednesday, “Jim had his heart in just about everything that happened in this community for many years. He never rested. The most recent conversation I had with him was about the Bull Street Commons,” an ongoing city development project.

Dunbar Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

This story was originally published November 11, 2015 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Columbia civic, business leader Jim Leventis dies at 77."