Jodean Thornton Collins

Joe and his twin brother were born on a farm in Corsicana, Texas. At age 10, the family moved to Fort Worth where Joe graduated from Carter-Riverside High School where he played football and participated in the band. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA having joined Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and participated on the gymnastics team. Joe served in the Air Force during the Korean War, arriving in Korea a week before the war ended.

After returning to Fort Worth, he met and fell in love with Annella, his wife of 61 years. He and Annella started a finance business moving to Midland, Texas in 1965. They then formed the Autry-Collins partnership and built commercial and residential properties in Midland, Texas, Roswell and Albuquerque, New Mexico. They moved to Dallas in 1969 where they founded the Excel Corporation where Joe built homes and developed properties in Dallas and Plano. In 1974, they purchased the First Savings Association of McKinney. Soon after, they expanded to three more branches and renamed it Majestic Savings, after the Colorado mountains they loved.

Joe and Annella contributed philanthropically to many causes. They were founding financiers of Practical Parent Education which still serves many school districts across the nation and in several countries by providing an education platform for new parents. They were also involved in the Hendrick Scholarship Foundation, which provides Plano ISD high school graduates who have overcome adversity with college scholarships and academic support. Joe and Annella were long-time members of Scofield Church where they enjoyed greeting people on Sunday morning and participating in Bible study. Joe was an avid golfer and kept his clubs nearby to practice his swing up until his death at age 93. Joe also enjoyed airplanes, vacationing in Vail, Colorado, and investing in the lives of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Joe had several lifelong friends who admired him for his generosity and character. Joe’s favorite Bible verse was Jesus’s response when asked what the greatest commandment was - Matthew 22: 37-39: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Joe is preceded in death by his wife, Annella Wray Hunter Collins. He is survived by his daughters, Cindi Karen Koder and her husband, Charles; Cari Lynda Collins; grandchildren Heather Koder Zeiger and her husband, David; Joshua Stephen Koder and his wife, Courtney; and great-grandchildren, Parker Scott Koder and Van Collins Koder.

Memorials may be made to: The Hendricks Scholarship Foundation https://hendrickscholarship.org/