Biographical Sketch of W. W. Collins
(C. Avis Catalog entry #667)
DRAFT (not the version in the Star-Telegram newspaper) 10-10-05
Obituary Of
WILLIAM WOLCOTT COLLINS
FORT WORTH — William Wolcott Collins, 86, died peacefully Friday, October 7, 2005 in Fort Worth, Texas. He was born February 5, 1919 the son of Margaret Wolcott Collins and William Franklin Collins, the grandson of Franklin Henry Collins, and the great-grandson of Delia H. Collins, who settled in Fort Worth in 1862. He came from a pioneer mercantile family.
Growing up in Fort Worth, he attended Central High School. At a young age, he developed a passion for tennis. He and his doubles partner won the City district and regional high school tennis championships, gaining the state finals in Austin. Later, in 1939 and 1940, he won the Fort Worth City Mens Singles and Doubles titles. Prior to college, he attended Texas Country Day School, the forerunner to St. Mark’s School in Dallas, where he was captain of the football team.
In 1937, he attended Williams College in Massachusetts, where he pledged Phi Gamma Delta fraternity. During his senior year, he was tapped for membership in Gargoyle, Williams’ senior class honorary society. He was captain of his college tennis team and qualified for the 1941 National Intercollegiate Championships in Philadelphia. He graduated from Williams with a B.A. degree in economics in 1941.
With the advent of World War II, he obtained his commission at the Naval Academy Officers Candidate School at Annapolis. From 1942 to 1945, he served in the Pacific theater as an officer aboard the legendary heavy cruiser, U.S.S. Indianapolis. He saw action from the Aleutian Islands in the north to the Admiralty Islands in the south. When his ship became the flagship for Admiral Spruance and the Fifth Fleet, he participated in the mid-Pacific drive to Japan. He served under fire at Tarawa, the Marshalls, Saipan/Tinian, Palau, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and in raids on Japan. For his service and valor, he received nine battle stars.
After three and a half years at sea, he was re-assigned to the U.S.S. Juneau, a new light cruiser being readied for a Japanese invasion. His transfer was only weeks before a Japanese submarine sank the Indianapolis in the Philippine Sea, resulting in the loss of 900 men and the Navy’s greatest sea disaster. After the war, he served in the Naval Reserve in Fort Worth. He resigned his commission in the 1950s with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.
In late 1945, he joined Collins Art Company, a downtown Fort Worth family business started in 1888 by his grandfather, Franklin Henry Collins. At Collins Art, he helped develop the breadth and scope of the company’s paint and wallpaper operations, which included the Collins-Davoust Paint Manufacturing Company in Dallas and, later, Collins Paint Products in Houston, Collins Paint Products in Oklahoma City, and additional stores in the Fort Worth market.
In 1964, his childhood friend and classmate, Charles Tandy, asked him to join Tandy Corporation’s then new operation called RadioShack, and he did. He retired from RadioShack in 1987. In retirement, he operated as a hobby a small mail-order business called Chaparral Books, which focused on Texana, and spent several months each year at his vacation home in Santa Fe.
In the 1950s, he was a founder and President of the Fort Worth Tennis Patrons Association, an organization designed to help young, promising tennis players pursue their goal of play on the Junior Davis Cup team. He was on the board of the Panther Boys Club and served several years on the Fort Worth Zoning Board. He was a director of Executive Service Corporation, an officer of Downtown Rotary Club, and a Board member and President of the Tarrant County Historical Society.
He joined the Exchange Club of Fort Worth in 1956 and was a member of that organization for almost 50 years. He was a Mason and belonged to other business and social organizations. He was a member of Steeplechase Club and maintained a membership in River Crest Country Club. He was a member of Ridglea Presbyterian Church.
He was a devoted husband and father, as well as a decorated war veteran. There was not a nicer man or truer friend - the highest of all compliments. It is seriously doubted he ever had an enemy. His life was full and for that he was grateful.
His charming wife, Peggy, and his sister, Caroline Collins Prizer, predeceased him. He is survived by his son, William Wolcott Collins, Jr. of Fort Worth; the Rev. David Avis and his wife, the Rev. Mary Avis, of Baytown, Texas; Charles Avis and his wife, Betsy, of Pasadena, California; Peggy Prizer Kenny and her husband, John, of Washington, D.C. and Old Lyme, Connecticut; Pamela Prizer Chernick and her husband, Craig, of Fort Worth and Santa Fe; and Dana Prizer Devereux and her husband, Rick, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. He leaves behind many friends and relatives, who have been blessed by his life and will forever mourn his passing.
Services will be Thursday, October 13, at 10:00 a.m. at Ridglea Presbyterian Church, 6201 Camp Bowie Blvd. Pallbearers are Bob Bowen, Dr. Gordon Kelly, Dr. Bill Lorimer, Cecil Munn, Dr. Robb Rutledge, Tom Seymour, Earle Shields, Grady Shropshire, Terrell Small, and Mark Smith. Interment will follow at Greenwood Memorial Park, White Settlement Road at University Drive, Fort Worth. Following interment, the family will receive friends at River Crest Country Club, 1501 Western Ave.
Memorials may be made to: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (1515 Holcombe, Houston, TX ), Tarrant County Historical Society, or the Alzheimer’s Association, Tarrant County Chapter.
Written by his son William Collins, Jr.