How many people can say they spent their first full day in Jacksonville with the Jacksonville Jaguars’ then-owner Wayne Weaver? Yet that was precisely Jim Colney’s introduction to the Bold City.
It was late 1999, and Colney was working with a Milwaukee-based company designing medium- to high-end home furnishing retail centers. A headhunter had been pestering him about a general manager position in Jacksonville at Liberty Furniture, but Colney was adamant that he had no interest in moving.
“Just by chance, he reached back out one more time around Thanksgiving,” Colney recalled. “It was a day that the family had just been at each other’s throats, and I’d had enough. I said, ‘What is it you got in Florida?’”
A couple of days later, he was on a Saturday night flight from Milwaukee to Jacksonville. The next morning, he met with the owners, had brunch and walked the facility.
“Around noon, [the owner] Mr. Sherman said, ‘I didn’t tell you this, but we’re going to take you to the Jaguars game,’” said Colney.
Sherman went on to explain that they would be sitting in a skybox with his friend and golf buddy. And that is how Colney got to watch the best Jags team in franchise history, sitting next to Wayne Weaver during his first 24 hours in town.
Colney accepted the Liberty Furniture job and moved to Jacksonville days before Y2K, much to the dismay of his friends and family, who worried about him being so far from home when mass computer malfunctions might cause a societal meltdown.
“All my friends, relatives, thought I was crazy at the time. My son couldn’t get out of here fast enough,” said Colney.
Colney’s love for architecture and design was born during his summers in Chicago as a boy, where he wandered through lush suburban neighborhoods, admiring homes.
A young Jim
After Liberty Furniture, Colney spent two separate stints working at Reddi-Arts, where he met many local artists with whom he is still friends today. After years of working in design-focused careers that demanded precision, he cherished the chance to express himself freely. He’s converted his garage apartment between Boulder and Inwood streets into an art studio where he paints and sketches.
Colney’s life post-retirement has been shaped by curiosity and a love of learning. Since stepping away from Reddi-Arts in 2012, he’s taken on a variety of roles – not for the paycheck, but for the experience. From working at an antique mall to tending plants in the garden center at Ace Hardware, spending a year with Habitat for Humanity, and even joining the bakery at Publix to learn the craft of baking, each job has been a chapter in a life driven by interest rather than income.
Over the course of his life, Colney has lived in 34 different homes – a testament to his willingness to embrace change and follow his interests wherever they lead.
Today, he works with Underhill Staffing, supporting older men with early-stage dementia, and also serves as a crossing guard at Hendricks Elementary five days a week during drop-off and pick-up.
Jim Colney
“I don’t let many people get past me without a wave or a smile. And I’ve had a number of people stop and say, ‘I haven’t smiled until I get to you,’” said Colney.
Colney loves getting to know his neighbors, something he attributes to his Midwestern roots, growing up in a small Wisconsin town known as America’s “Little Switzerland.” He loves attending parties and get-togethers, and enjoys making specially curated photobooks of the event for the hosts.
“I’m the person that’s always in somebody’s face with my phone, getting your photo and everything,” said Colney.
Colney is notorious among his family and friends for a total lack of any sense of direction. GPS is of no help to him. He drives a truck willed to him by his dear friend and artist, Jim Smith, who passed away in March 2025. Cemented on the truck’s dash is a 1950s hula girl.
“She knows I’m always lost, so she’s always slamming her head into the windshield. And I’m always saying, ‘Jim, I know you’re here,’” said Colney.
He may always be lost on the roads, but Jim Colney has found his home in Jacksonville and never seems to lose sight of the things that make life worth exploring.