James William Colbert Jr. (December 15, 1920 – September 11, 1974) was an American physician and the first vice president of academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), serving in this capacity from 1969 until his death in a plane crash in 1974.

[4] Colbert spent a year in Europe working for the U.S. Army Medical Corps, after which he completed a residency at Yale School of Medicine.

[6] In 1969, Colbert and his family moved from Washington, D.C., where he had been working for the National Institutes of Health, to South Carolina.

[7] He became the first vice president for academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina on February 1, 1969, and remained in that position until his death.

[4] Colbert, along with two of his sons, Paul and Peter, died in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 on September 11, 1974, in Charlotte, North Carolina.