Joseph Clinton de Leon Coleman

COLEMAN JOSEPH CLINTON de LEON COLEMAN (Age 24) A a resident of Washington D.C. and Hume, Virginia, passed away on March 31, 2012. A peacemaker whose quiet charisma and generosity were legendary in his short life, Joseph is the son of Washington D.C. lawyers, Lynn R. Coleman and Sylvia A. de Leon. He was born in Washington on June 19, 1987, and graduated from the Beauvoir School, St. Albans Lower School and Georgetown Day School. He attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of Delta Chi Fraternity, and the Texas Culinary Institute. A talented chef who enjoyed cooking for private dinner parties, Joseph also played lacrosse, soccer and basketball in school and was an avid skier. He enjoyed spectator sports and was an accomplished computer games specialist. Among his wide travels, Joseph recently returned from an extensive trip to Turkey, where he assisted The Washington Ballet on a foreign tour. He played intermural soccer in Ireland. As a student, he traveled the Silk Road, where he studied the ethnic minorities of China. Joseph was quick to interpret intellectual and political issues, and volunteered in the campaigns of John F. Kerry and Tim Kaine. During Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential bid, he coordinated precincts for the Iowa Caucuses in Des Moines and Runnels. He is survived by two brothers, Marine Lance Corporal William Rogers de Leon Coleman of Camp Lejune, NC. and Hume, VA and John Anthony Ross Coleman of Boulder, CO; and two sisters, Camille de Leon Coleman of Washington, DC. and Sheridan Coleman Ernstmeyer of Austin, TX. Joseph was interested in history, including that of his ancestors in Virginia and Texas. He descends from generations of Texans who settled there from Spain in the early 17th Century. His seventh great-grandfather, Fernando del Bosque, led a Spanish delegation over the Rio Grande River to create the first three Spanish settlements in Texas in 1675. Joseph is the grandson of South Texas Hispanic civic leaders and entrepreneurs, Jose R. de Leon and Velia J. de Leon. On his father's side, he descends from French Huegenot settler Pierre Chastain, who arrived at the James River in 1700. Paternal grandparents Clint Sheridan Coleman and Genevieve Ross Coleman descended from early settlers at Doan's Crossing, in West Texas. A paternal great-great grandfather, William Henry Coleman, served in Hood's Texas Brigade, a famous unit that was part of the Army of Northern Virginia and engaged in major battles there as well as in Antietam and Gettysburg. The family has determined that he marched by and camped near what is now the family farm in Fauquier County on the Rappahanock River, which Joseph enjoyed all of his life. Joseph is also survived by his aunts and uncles, Bob and Judy Coleman of Dallas TX; Joe R. de Leon of Corpus Christi, TX; and Zaida and Leonard O. Zeke Wilson, of Oviedo, FL. He leaves behind numerous loving cousins and a wide circle of stalwart friends. Funeral and burial will take place at Chastain Farm, in Hume, VA, on Saturday, April 7 at 3 p.m. Friends may also call at the family home in Washington on Thursday, April 5, for prayers and remembrances from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Joseph Coleman Memorial Fund for the new garden at Beauvoir School and the Joseph Coleman Dancer Fund at The Washington Ballet.