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Donald Collins died on May 6 at his home in East Moriches. He was 80.
He was born in Brooklyn and moved as a boy to Mastic Beach, where he attended St. John the Evangelist Elementary School and Center Moriches High School, graduating in 1951. He received a bachelor’s degree from Queens College in 1955, and later received his master’s degree from Dowling College. An ardent student and teacher of history, he taught in the William Floyd School District from 1956 to 1989 and later served as an adjunct professor of history at Suffolk Community College in Riverhead. During the 1960s, he spent summers working at Smith Point Beach and Cupsogue Beach as an ocean lifeguard, and worked for many years as a real estate agent at Moriches Bay Realty. Mr. Collins was a devoted baseball fan—both of the sport in general and of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Mets specifically—and spent time as a player, a coach and an umpire. He was a voracious reader who read every New York newspaper, every day.
Mr. Collins is survived by his children, Diane Hatton White and husband Michael, Karen Collins-Nelson and husband Daniel, and David Collins and wife Pamela, and by their mother, Dolores Collins. He is also survived by seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, Ben, Sarah, Sean and wife Laura, Kevin, Renée, Lydia, Stevin, Leila and Anna, and nieces and nephews, as well as several caregivers.
He was predeceased by his parents, Mary D. Collins and Patrick Collins; his wife, Theresa Bohlinger-Collins; a sister, Grace Joan Collins-Cooney; and an infant daughter, Judith Ann.
Visiting was at Sinnickson’s Moriches Funeral Home in Center Moriches. A funeral mass took place on May 12 at St. John the Evangelist Church, also in Center Moriches. Interment was at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Center Moriches.
Memorial donations may be made to the Animal Rescue Fund of the Hamptons, P.O. Box 901, Wainscott, NY 11975.
on May 12, 2014