Devoyd “Dee” Jennings, President and CEO of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce for Blacks, has died.
According to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce for Blacks, Jennings died on Saturday, July 24th.
He was born in 1947.
Jennings graduated from IM Terrell High School in 1966. He was part of the national basketball championship team coached by Robert Hughes in 1965.
He enrolled at Tarrant County College and later attended Texas Wesleyan University, which he graduated with a degree in marketing in 1971, the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce said.
Jennings began his 27-year career at TXU as a community affairs specialist in 1973 and was the first black lobbyist for Texas Electric.
He was a member of the Texas Association of Business from 1995 to 2014, Texas Wesleyan University from 1989 to 2008, and the North Texas Commission from 1993 to 2003 and the Texas Association of African American Chambers.
Jennings also served as Chairman of NTTA’s Business Diversity Advisory Committee from 2009 to 2013.
In both 1992 and 2005, the city of Fort Worth honored Jennings with a Devoyd Jennings Day proclamation.
He was named Who’s Who in Economic Development by the Fort Worth Business Press in 1999 and received the 1998 Business Press Deal Maker Award.
In 2016, he was involved in directing efforts to reopen IM Terrell High School as a STEM and Performing Arts Academy.
Jennings helped found two independent organizations that directly benefit minority development: a financial credit agency called William Mann Community Development Corp. and a community development agency called Southeast Fort Worth Inc.
He has also worked with government agencies and others like the City of Fort Worth, Arlington, JPS Health Network, Tarrant County, and the Fort Worth ISD to achieve the goals of minority and women’s business.
Jennings received a Minority Leaders in Business Award from the Fort Worth Business Press in 2017.
Further details on his death will follow in the coming days, according to the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce.
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