Julius Alexander Colman, Jr. was born on August 30, 1925 in Martins Ferry, OH the son of Julius Alexander and Anna Vargo Colman (Kalman). He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1943 and joined the Army Air Force. After basic training and service as an armorer Colman attended the Army Air Forces Technical School at Lowry Field, CO in 1944 where he was trained as a remote-control turret mechanic and was promoted from private to technical sergeant. In 1945 he was assigned to the 40th Bombardment Squadron (Very Heavy), 6th Bombardment Group stationed on Tinian in the Mariana Islands where he served as chief of the central fire control section. Colman returned to the United States the following year and was honorably discharged. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force Reserve in 1947 and was honorably discharged in 1951.

Colman married Mildred Stiles in 1946. He later married Betty Raynell Williams in 1965. Colman had two daughters, Linda and Cynthia. He graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1953 with a degree in industrial engineering, joining the Ford Motor Company that same year as foreman of the Steel Division in Dearborn, MI. In 1954 Colman was promoted to industrial engineer at the Livonia, MI plant, becoming supervisor of its Industrial Engineering Department in 1956, senior engineer in 1959, unit supervisor-process engineer in 1960, section supervisor in 1960, and manager of the Industrial Engineering Department, Manufacturing and Plant Engineering Office, Transmission and Chassis Division in 1964. In 1977 he became vice president of operations for the Japan Automatic Transmission Company. After retiring from Ford Colman lived in Easley, SC. He died in Greenville, SC on Oct. 10, 2002.