Necrology

John Edward Collins '68

Jun. 27, 1946-Aug. 18, 2023

John Edward Collins ’68 died on Aug. 18, 2023, in Burlington, N.J. Born on June 27, 1946, in Bristol, Pa., he spent his early years in New Jersey before his family moved to Manhattan while his father attended Columbia University. The Collinses subsequently moved to East Northport, Long Island, where John developed what would be a lifelong passion for America’s national pastime. He came to Hamilton from West Hempstead High School. On the Hill, John majored in history, was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity, and played on the College’s varsity baseball team throughout his four years. 

Graduating with honors in history, John joined the Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) for two years and was assigned to work at the Bethlehem Center of Nashville, a social service agency for families in the city. While there, in August 1968, John met Dorothy Allison, who was attending Tennessee State University and working for the Metro Action Commission, an agency with a mission comparable to that of the Bethlehem Center. They married in June 1970.

John had anticipated studying law after VISTA, and though he was accepted by both the University of Chicago and Cornell University law schools, his attention was drawn to a newer program at Montclair (N.J.) State University that prepared recent college graduates to teach inner-city youth, an interest that was clearly born of his work in Nashville. For four years, he taught at Brainerd Elementary School in Mt. Holly, N.J. In 1974, his family moved from Mt. Holly to nearby Willingboro, which became their permanent home. That same year, John worked for New Jersey’s Bureau of Children’s Services and began attending Temple University’s law school at night. He earned his Juris Doctor in 1977.

John’s subsequent legal career included service as counsel for the New Jersey School Boards Association and the New Jersey Educational Association. For 28 years, he was the municipal prosecutor for Willingboro Township. In addition to having his own practice, John on various occasions worked at the Selikoff & Cohen and Parker-McCay law firms, focusing on municipal and education law.

John’s profound sense of civic duty was reflected in his active and longtime engagement with local Democratic politics in Willingboro. He served for almost four decades as a pro bono legal advisor for the Willingboro Democratic Committee (WDC), the Willingboro Democratic Club, and the Burlington County Democratic Committee (BCDC). In that same period, John was the Democratic committeeman in New Jersey’s 34th District, centered in Willingboro, at first in close collaboration with his friend and neighbor committeewoman Freddie George and thereafter with his wife. On at least one occasion John knocked on every door in the 34th district in an effort to increase voter participation. He also served on the Willingboro library and zoning boards. 

Reflecting his love for history, John joined the Burlington County Historical Society. Such was his affection for the subject that his and Dorothy’s favorite travel memories were the eight summers they explored the Underground Railroad Trail from Maryland and the Mid-Atlantic to Burlington, N.J. They also traveled through New England states and Canada’s Maritime Provinces, and as far west as Windsor, Ontario. But they always made it a point to end each trip in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., close to John’s parents’ home in nearby Albany.

Of singular importance in appreciating John’s life and work is the fact that after graduating from Hamilton, he did not throw his baseball mitt in a closet and forget about it. He spent many years as a coach for the Willingboro Babe Ruth League team for 13-to-14-year-old boys, and later realized his dream of leading a college baseball team, serving as assistant coach for Burlington County College. 

But John was not content simply to sit in the dugout or occupy one of the coach’s boxes watching boys and young men out on the field. He became a lifetime player, pitching and playing second base for the Willingboro team of the New Jersey Wonder Boys. And because his team was part of the national Roy Hobbs Baseball League, he traveled to Fort Myers, Fla., for its annual gatherings and proudly displayed his Forever Young Atlantic Champion 2018 trophy from the league. True to the trophy’s celebration of never outgrowing the sport, John played on the 40+, 50+, and 60+ Wonder Boys teams, and then played for the over-70 squad until Alzheimer’s disease halted his participation in 2019. 

His support of the game included lobbying for an upgrade to the Wonder Boys’s home field in Willingboro and also monitoring the conditions of other baseball fields nearby. For his dedication to the game of baseball, John was named Hamilton’s Baseball Alumnus of the Year in 2017. 

His perspective on his years on the Hill evolved over the years. In 1993, in his 25th reunion yearbook, he confessed that “I am still wrestling with feelings of ambivalence about my Hamilton experience. I do not feel joy when I think about my four years in Clinton.” He added: “My desire to come to terms with my Hamilton experience springs from the recognition that my four years helped me to define the person I have become. … In the final analysis, my attempts to make sense of my Hamilton years are part of a continuing effort to know myself.”

By 2008 and his 40th reunion yearbook, his views had mellowed somewhat: “I think I have always been self-reliant, but the Hamilton experience increased my inner toughness. Despite the days (mostly in the winter) I felt like hurling epithets at it, I now find myself promoting the College to my grandsons.” On the occasion of his 50th reunion, John reflected succinctly in his yearbook: “Rigorous education. Good preparation for later employment and public service. Not so good preparation for appropriate social interactions.”

His at-times conflicted reflections notwithstanding, John was active in the Philadelphia chapter of the Alumni Association and was a member of the Class of 1968’s 50th reunion planning and gift committees. Not one to shun responsibility, when it came time for someone to sample the dishes that might grace the reunion banquet, John often stepped up.

Not surprisingly, he was highly respected in Willingboro, his home for 49 years. Dorothy wrote that he “was the calm, steady voice of reason in all things Willingboro, and the loss of his wit, energy, loyalty, friendship, and devotion to what is right and just leaves a gaping hole in the soul of this town.” 

Learning of his death, Michael Berkowitz ’68 wrote: “John was an incredible loss, as he was smart, funny, well-grounded, and forward thinking. We were on the 50th reunion panel together [that discussed the impact of the year 1968 on the College, its alumni, and the nation at large]. I couldn’t thank him enough for his insight, balance, keen observation, and humor.”

John E. Collins is survived by his wife, a sister, three adopted children, three grandchildren, one brother-in-law, one sister-in-law, and a niece. He is also survived by his cousin Nicholas Allen Jacobs ’96.

— Memorial biography prepared in collaboration with Dorothy A. Collins

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