Randall Sayles Collins

Randall Sayles Collins of Atlantic Beach, FL, husband of Dorothy W. Collins, died on January 22, 2017. He was born in New Haven, CT on March 5, 1930, the son of Jewett H. and Lillian S. Collins. After graduating from the University of Connecticut in 1951, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served on the USS Warrington, DD843, before attending the Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. He was assigned to the Recruit Training Command in Bainbridge, Maryland, serving as a battalion commander before becoming Officer in Charge of the Recruit Preparatory Training Unit. This unit was charged with bringing the reading and math skills of new recruits up to a fifth grade level. After discharge from the Navy upon completion of six years of service, he was employed for thirty years by Southern New England Telephone Company in New Haven, CT. He was District Manager (Network Switching Engineering) when he retired in 1985, moving to Hilton Head Island for fifteen years. In 2000 he moved to the retirement community of FLEET LANDING in Atlantic Beach, He was a volunteer at Mayo Clinic for ten years and a member of Singers-by-the Sea. He is survived by his beloved wife, Dorothy, and their two sons, Jeffrey (Lisa) of Harleysville, PA and Peter (Connie) of Jarrettsville, MD; four grandchildren, Cailin, Merrin, Daniel, and Lauren. Interment will be in the Collins family plot in Columbia, CT.