Gary Walter Collins

November 23, 1938 – June 24, 2015

Gary Walter Collins, 76, died in his home on June 24 of advanced Parkinson’s disease. Gary was born in 1938 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the only child of Ernestine and Dave Collins. His family temporarily returned to Denver where he considers himself a fourth generation Coloradan. Gary believes that his family moving to many locations was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because it gave him a wonderful education in geography, but schooled in 11 grade schools before reaching high school increased his shyness because he was always the new kid.

After graduating from Grant High school in Portland Oregon, he attended Stanford University where he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. From age eight, he knew that he wanted to be an engineer. When his baffled parents, on observing a huge Ferris wheel he built from an erector set in three days, explained that mechanical engineers do that sort of thing, he decided that was for him! Gary relished his engineering career and subsequently published fifteen articles ranging from quieting noisy machines to stabilizing house foundations.

Gary met his wife, Elizabeth, while serving as a youth counselor at Lake of the Woods, Ontario, Canada. Taken with her cute profile and energetic demeanor, they married in 1965, two years later. Gary is survived by his wife of 50 years and two children, Lisa and David, both of Southern California; their spouses, William Rowley and Allison Collins respectively, and four grandchildren, Elizabeth and William Rowley, III; and Clayton and Nicholas Collins.

Gary began his career working for IBM, designing memory products, and remained in the computer field for most of his career. For nineteen years he worked for StorageTek in Louisville. Later, he established his own consulting business and considers the pinnacle of his career a contract with the Library of Congress to assist them in determining the longevity of optical storage. More recently, he switched from computer products to foundation structural engineering with an emphasis on helical piles. While participating on the work crew at First Presbyterian Church, Gary assisted in some of the structural remodel in the First Presbyterian chapel.

A train lover since a boy, Gary’s love of trains became a life long hobby. He and his son, David, volunteered for several years on the Cumbres and Toltec steam railroad in southern Colorado, where they scraped and painted tank cars and cleared the track of shrubbery. Together, they’ve also built a miniature trolley car that has provided hours of delight for children in trolley car celebrations in the state of Colorado and for his grandchildren, as well.

However, Gary felt the most worthwhile thing he did was to teach adult Sunday school classes. For that purpose, he attended Fuller Seminary in Pasadena for a year to become more knowledgeable in teaching diverse parts of the Bible such as Genesis, Job, and the Psalms. He also developed a course on the history of English and American hymns that proved popular for many years. Gary followed up his teaching in the church with singing in the choir, sharing a joy of music with his wife.

His life is summed up in the opening sentence of the Heidelberg Catechism:

Q: What is your only comfort, in life and death?

A: That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ…

Gary’s family will deeply miss his gentle guiding presence.

The viewing and funeral service will be held on Thursday, July 2 at 10:00am and 11:00am respectively at First Presbyterian Church in Boulder, with a reception to follow.

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