Collin B. Hamer Jr.

To paraphrase Lieutenant Tasha Yar, in Star Trek, The Next Generation, if you're reading this, I must be dead. Collin Bradfield Hamer, Jr., died on July 29th 2026, beloved husband of the late Jacqulin "Jackie" Theresa Grant, Brother of Sharon Elizabeth Hamer (Alfred David), William Gordon Hamer (Leslie Felger), Jean Ann Hamer, Carol Ann Hamer (Donald Carvajal), and Faye Lynn Hamer (Raymond Brown).

Collin was born at Hotel Dieu Hospital in New Orleans on September 3rd, 1939. He was the son of Collin Bradfield Hamer Sr. and Vivian Elizabeth Hanna Hamer. He is preceded in death by his beloved wife Jacqulin "Jackie" Theresa Grant, his parents, brother, William Gordon Hamer, and sister, Jean Ann Hamer.

Collin attended Saint Rita Parochial School on Pine Street and Fortier High School. He attended Tulane University and received his BA from L.S.U.N.O. in 1963, and his MS in Library Science from LSU in 1966. Collin was a member of the drill team in the Junior R.O.T.C. Department while at Fortier and the Air Force R.O.T.C. Saber Jets Drill Team while at Tulane. He also volunteered with Civil Defense's Ground Observer Corps.

Collin and his wife "Jackie" met while they were both members of the Moisant Squadron, Civil Air Patrol. "Jackie" was a senior member, but Collin had been a cadet member since high school and became a Senior member later. During his 8 years of membership, he attended 3-week-long encampments (2 at England Air Force Base and one at Lake Charles Air Force Base).

They enjoyed bike riding, camping, and traveling. The annual family trip to Decatur, Georgia and Asheville, North Carolina was fun for all. The camping trips were usually to Louisiana and Mississippi, but the one at Santa Rosa Island in Florida was one of the most memorable with the beautiful view of the stars at night and the challenge of keeping the raccoons from getting into the ice chests. Collin and "Jackie" loved the trips to Europe and the cruises to the Baltic, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean. They visited 32 countries.

He started work in the Catalog Department at the New Orleans Public Library in 1963, moved to the Business and Science Division in 1966, and retired in 2004 after a 41-year career, the last 36 of them as Head of the Louisiana Division and the City Archives Collection. He used volunteers extensively to index and type, and the Mormons to film and later scan the many genealogical records in the city archives. He also assisted in negotiating the contract with the Historic New Orleans Collection to create an online database of the library's 600,000 card Louisiana Biography and Obituary File. Collin was active in the Louisiana Historical Association, the Louisiana Library Association, the American Library Association, the Society of Southwest Archivist, the Friends of the Archives of Louisiana, the Greater New Orleans Archivist, the Jefferson Historical Commission, the New Bonnabel Civic Association, and the Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans. He contributed a number of articles to the Louisiana Historical Association's State Historical Journal, Louisiana History, the New Orleans Genesis, the Dictionary of Louisiana Biography, the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, and the Guide to the History of Louisiana, by Light Cummins and Glen Jeansonne, published by Greenwood Press in 1982. He was the guest editor for the "Genealogy in Louisiana Libraries" issue of the L.L.A. bulletin in 1991.

Collin received the mid-career award from the Louisiana Library Association, Junior Members Round Table in 1980, for "Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Librarianship". He received the Lucy B. Foote award from the L.L.A. Subject Specialist Section in 1987.

Collin received the CHARLES E DUNBAR JR award from the Louisiana Civil Service League in 2000 "In Recognition of Unselfish Service to the Citizens of Louisiana through the Merit System of Public Employment."

As a child and later, a teenager, he loved to build model airplanes and hang out at the area airports. He always brought his camera and took pictures of the airplanes. For a while he developed his own film but had to bring the negatives to Katz and Bestoff for the prints.

Collin was a collector, or a pack rat from childhood. After one of the freezes in 1950 he pulled his little red wagon around the neighborhood collecting icicles from faucets and even pried up a frozen puddle with one of his dad's screwdrivers, for further study. Of course, they were all melted by lunch time.

Some of his collections included seashells, feathers, model airplanes, old airplane parts, postcards, foreign currency, coins, postage stamps, British mysteries, and Star Trek books. He loved nature and would take the kids and grandkids "minnowing". The minnows were for his wild tank and separate from his tropical fish tank.

He loved to help Grandma Hanna with gardening, where he learned the local names for bugs, birds, and other creatures. He could identify mosquito hawks (dragonflies), candle bugs (June bugs), doodle bugs (pill bugs), locusts (cicadas), and many others. He learned many of the local names of birds from her and his dad such as a bull bat (night hawk), hell diver (grebe), and a rain crow (a yellow-billed cuckoo). He collected seeds from Grandma Hanna's Garden and sold them back to her packaged in medicine bottles for a quarter.

From the multi-week family vacation in Mississippi Gulf Coast Town of Clermont Harbor in 1947, (the year of the hurricane), to the annual trips to Waveland or Bay St Louis where the family spent two weeks in a rented cabin, Collin got to go crabbing, fishing and floundering with spears between the sandbars at night. Collin also went on many fishing trips with his dad, his brother Gordon, and one of his or Gordon's kids, often in Barataria Bay, Lake Bourne or the Rigolets. Collin caught the fewest fish, but took the catch home anyway because Gordon and his dad didn't want them. On one trip his daughter Jan, caught a hard head catfish and swung it on board, where it promptly flipped over and stuck its top fin into Collin's foot.

When "Jackie" was pregnant with Jan, Collin realized how little he knew about his or her family trees. Typically, he had paid little attention to family information offered by his parents and grandparents, who could have easily answered the questions that came up later. Over the years, he spent many hours going through dusty records in courthouses and archives, exploring cemeteries and interviewing older relatives. In the pre-Xerox days copies were expensive, usually photo stats. At the Iberville Parish Courthouse, he was given a small corner to set up his portable typewriter to type copies of old documents. He discovered connections to some of the earliest settlers in the French and Spanish areas of New Orleans. Especially since his retirement, he spent many hours working on his and Jackie's genealogies. He also wrote biographies of his mother and father, and with the aid of his son Grant, printed copies for the distribution to family members and libraries.

When the children were old enough to join the girl scouts and boy scouts, Jackie and Collin were active in their activities. Collin was a chaperone on a train trip in a week-long stay in Washington DC, a trip to NAS Pensacola, a canoe trip on Bayou Saint John, another one down the Tchefuncte river, and other activities. Bruce and Grant were very embarrassed on the last trip by having the highest record of turnovers (three) but it was a blast. He was also a Merit Badge Counselor for the Stamp Collecting and Genealogy badges.

He was an active bike rider for years and would ride from Lake Villa pumping station in Metairie to the Treasure Chest Casino in Kenner, often with one of the children or grandchildren on the back seat of his bike. On the way back, he would stop and pick up trash along the bike trail. Once, he rescued a seagull and carried it with one hand on the handlebars, while it furiously bit him, as he made it back to the car. On the next day it was dropped off at Audubon Park's wild bird rescue center, where his sister Jean was a volunteer. Collin was also very active on E bird sponsored by Cornell University's lab of Ornithology, and provided a steady stream of sightings to the database.

One of his favorite activities at home was the nightly "frogging" track around the yard with the grandchildren, looking for frogs with flashlights. The frogs were usually toads, which would be released to catch again another night. The expedition usually ended when they brought the bucket full of toads to show "Jackie". Inevitably the bucket would be knocked over and the toads hopped in every direction while "Jackie" screamed. He still has several jars of alcohol containing frogs, snakes and lizards. He used to joke with the kids that when he died, he wanted to be put in a large glass jar of alcohol in the corner of the den.

Collin will be deeply missed by his children, Jan Alexandra Hamer, Bruce William Gerard Hamer (Karay Tessier), Grant Douglas Hamer, and adopted Iranian daughter Shahnaz Sanjabi; his grandchildren, Jerrod Michael Songy (Danae Dolinsky), Rory Patrick Hamer (Jiyun Park), Blaise Meriadoc Pinero (Logan Pine), Rozarion DeNeil Anders (Alesha Phillips), Connor Peregrin Pinero, Duncan Samwise Pinero (Olivia Roy), Kyle William Hamer (Cricket Giles), and Kory Collin Hamer (Erica Beloso), great grandchildren; Destinee Michelle Anders (Jesse Fernandez), Zaria DeNeil Anders, Taelyn Amour Anders, Jayden Vontre' Washington, Donald Ray Washington, Blaise Michael Pinero, Raiden Presley Pinero, Briar Grace Pinero, Ethan Isaiah Songy, Aurora Ann-Marie Songy, Knox Robin Hamer, Camden Louise Hamer; great-great-grandchildren Azrae'l DeNeil Fernandez, Aviana Jade Fernandez, his extended family and friends, the multitude of people he considered family and those who called him Papa (the Wilson's, and "the Pakistani 's").

Relatives and friends are invited to attend the funeral and mass at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd, New Orleans on Saturday, August 8, 2026, at 12:00 pm. A time of visitation will be held from 10:00 am until 12:00 pm. Interment will be in Lake Lawn Park.

In lieu of flowers, donations to your favorite charities in Collin's name would be preferred.