William Edmond Collum

William Edmond Collum died at his home in Southampton on October 23. He was 83.

Born in East Hampton on October 21, 1925, to Gertrude McGoldrick and Edmond Collum, he enlisted in the U.S Navy after graduating from East Hampton High School in 1943.

Following radio technical school in Michigan City, Indiana, he went on to study electrical engineering at Oklahoma A&M and was promoted to third class electronics technician maintenance. He then reported to the USS Corson, AVP-37, in Long Beach, California, which entered Nagasaki on September 11, 1945, to locate and return American prisoners of war. He was discharged in April 1946.

On April 19, 1947, he married Mary Simonson at the Church of the Most Holy Trinity in East Hampton and went to work for his family’s sign business. Upon completion of neon school he opened his own business, Collum Signs, in Southampton. He later incorporated the business and moved the sign shop to Water Mill, where he was joined in the business by his father and brother, Tim Collum. Today the business is operating under the direction of his son, William Collum Jr., and grandson, William Collum III.

Mr. Collum was a Boy Scout leader and was a founder of the Association for the Help of Retarded Children. He served as president of the Hamptons Association, which promoted tourism on Long Island in the late 1960s. The senior vice commander of Southampton Veterans of Foreign Wars Dunes Post 7009, he especially enjoyed visiting elementary schools on Veterans Day and distributing American flags to children who had learned the Pledge of Allegiance. He was also an active member of Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Roman Catholic Church for 60 years.

He loved sports and was an avid skier; during winter he traveled as far north as Canada and west to Montana to find snow. His favorite form of recreation though, was boating and fishing with his wife. Since the late 1940s when he built his first boat in his backyard, he’d been an avid boater and fisherman. Checking the weather and tides, he would always find where the blues were running and the “Mary and Me” was there to haul in the day’s catch. Traveling by boat, he and his wife made a trip up the Hudson River, several trips across the sound to Connecticut, and even took a winter vacation down the inland waterway to Florida and the Keys.

In additon to his wife, Mary Collum of Southampton, he is survived by two sons, William E. Collum Jr. of Southampton, and David Collum and his wife Elizabeth of Delhi; two daughters and their husbands, Carol and James Suhr and Mary and John Timothy, both of Virginia; a brother, Edmond K. Collum Jr. of East Hampton; and 14 grandchildren, James M Suhr, Douglas W. Suhr, Lisa A. Bromley, Steven C. Suhr, Kevin C. Shannon, Erin M. Rogers, Kelly E. Shannon, Colleen L. Shannon, Lindsay K. Reilly, William E. Collum III, Colin J. Collum, Luke Collum, Daniel Collum and Stephen Collum.

He is also survived by nine great-grandchildren, Gabrielle Suhr, Kaitlin Suhr, Ethan Suhr, Emma Suhr, Zachary Bromley, Logan Bromley, Sierra Shannon, Reagan Shannon, and Connor Rogers; and four nieces and nephews. A brother, Thomas Francis Collum, predeceased him.

Visitation was held on October 26 at the O’Connell Funeral Home in Southampton, where members of VFW Post 7009 offered a prayer service. A funeral mass was held on October 27 at Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary Church in Southampton; interment with military honors followed at the church cemetery.