Historical records matching Colonel Hubert Walter Collins
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About Colonel Hubert Walter Collins
Col. Hubert Walter Collins was born in North Carolina, the son of Joseph Walter Collins and his wife, nee Texana/Texanna Ora Alice Branch. His father died when he was only four years old, and he had a kind stepfather, George Benton (Bent) Alford. He grew up in Holly Springs, Wake, NC, raised mostly by his father's father and his step grandmother and a former slave, to whom he referred (with much fondness) as "Old Uncle Dick." His siblings were Roger, Martin, and Delcie (Mrs. Marcus Mims). He had step- siblings, Mattie Viola (Utley) and (Green) Hayward Alford.
He graduated with a BA in mathematics from the University of North Carolina and from the same institution with an MA in mathematics. He then graduated from both Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), schools that had a joint program at that time, briefly, for civil engineering, with a BSc in civil engineering in 1917. He passed a test that gained him a commission in the US Army and joined the Corps of Engineers. He served in WWI in Europe and was in France at the time of the Armistice.
He was a river engineer for the Corps in Kansas City, and there he married Eleanor Jane Robinson 24 Nov. 1932. They went immediately to Panama, after a trip to the East Coast and the Army-Navy game. He was stationed with troops in the Canal Zone, and their first daughter, Carolyn, was born there in 1934. When they returned from Panama they were at Fort Lewis, Wash., where their second daughter, Mary Frances, was born in 1936. They lived in Washington, D.C., then in Baton Rouge, La., where he was on the faculty at LSU teaching ROTC. Their third daughter, Betsy, was born in Baton Rouge in 1942.
When WWII became a reality the family went to Lynchburg, Va., then to Kansas City, and when he was ordered to Europe, his wife and girls went to live in Grandview, Mo., south of Kansas City, near his wife's family. He was stationed in North Africa, where he commanded a regiment, then took his men up through Italy. When WWII ended he was in Heidelberg in Germany, as Deputy Engineer of the Sixth Army Group, involved in a campaign up the Rhone Valley. Upon his return to the US, the family joined him as he closed Army depots in Pasco, Wa., and Oakland and Lathrop, Calif., then retired after 30 years in the Corps of Engineers.
The family went in 1947 to Fort Collins, where he taught civil engineering at Colorado A&M College (later CSU), where he was named Top Prof, an indication of his dedication to his students and to his field. He retired in 1957. Years later he died in Fort Collins, where he was active in the First Baptist Church. He was a 32nd-degree Mason and always maintained his membership in his lodge in North Carolina, a state to which he always felt loyalty ("I'm a Tarheel born; I'm a Tarheel bred; and when I die, I'll be a Tarheel dead" was a favorite saying of his). He belonged to the Sons of the American Revolution and was very proud of his family's participation in the founding of the country that he loved. He received various military honors including the Bronze Star and the Croix de Guerre for service to his country and to the people of France.
From Betsy Collins:
the Leslie home (later the Alford home, 100 Avent Ferry Rd., in which my father [Hubert] lived as a child after the age of six )
Birth: Jan. 28, 1892, Holly Springs, Wake County, North Carolina, USA
Death: Mar. 30, 1988, Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado, USA
Parents:
- Joseph Walter Collins (1859 - 1897)
- Texanna Ora Branch Collins (1865 - 1938)
Spouse: Eleanor Jane Robinson Collins (1902 - 1998)*
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Colonel Hubert Walter Collins's Timeline
| 1892 |
January 28, 1892
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Holly Springs, Wake County, North Carolina, United States
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| 1988 |
March 30, 1988
Age 96
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Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado, United States
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| ???? |
Fort Collins, Larimer County, Colorado, United States
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