Pioneering entrepreneur Comer Cottrell dies at age 82

Comer Cottrell, the Dallas entrepreneur who founded Pro-Line Corp. hair care products, reportedly died Friday at age 82.

Friends and family confirmed his death Friday morning. The philanthropist and mentor is most noted as the Dallas entrepreneur that founded one of the largest African-American hair care products companies. He also had a small stake in the Texas Rangers beginning in 1989, the Morning News reported. Cottrell bought the predominantly African-American Bishop College in 1990 and financed the renovation and relocation of Paul Quinn College.

Comer J. Cottrell, Jr., one of Texas’ leading African American entrepreneurs, was a United States Air Force sergeant stationed in Japan in the early fifties and managing a PX when he noticed that it didn’t carry hair-care products for black soldiers. When he got back to the States, he was a partner in a publishing company and worked sales before pursuing the business opportunity he had spotted years earlier: In 1970 he and his brother James co-founded Pro-Line Corporation, which makes hair-care products for African Americans. In thirty years the company’s product line grew to include such leading brands as Just for Me and Soft and Beautiful. But Cottrell had larger concerns than just the bottom line. He financially rescued predominately black Paul Quinn College, moving it from Waco to the former campus of Bishop College in Dallas, and supported civil rights groups across the country. He also dabbled in sports, becoming a part owner of the Texas Rangers from 1989 to 1998. Last year Dallas-based Pro-Line was acquired by hair-care giant Alberto-Culver for a reported $75 million, and Cottrell stepped down as CEO and chairman

In 2000, Cromer sold the company to Illinois-based Alberto-Culver, a manufacturing and beauty products company, for a reported $75 million. Cottrell put his Old Preston Hollow mansion up for sale at the end of last year, pricing it at $2.35 million, reduced from $3.9 million when it was first listed about a year and a half before that.