William R. Collins ’50

William R. Collins ’50, M.D., died peacefully on November 16, 2009, in Port Ludlow, Washington, where he had moved in 1996. Following high school graduation in 1944 Bill enlisted in the Navy, where he attended the Hospital Corps School. Discharged as a pharmacist mate, he immediately enrolled at Dartmouth, was a member of Delta Tau Delta and a student at Dartmouth Medical School for two years, after which he finished at Harvard Medical School. From 1953 through 1956 he did his internship and residency at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. From 1956 to 1988 he conducted a pediatrics practice in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1988 he was named medical director for the child protective services team in Hawaii and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Hawaii Medical School. Health problems caused him to retire in 1991. Bill met Barbara “Bobbie” Horn, then attending Smith, while at Dartmouth. They were married in 1953 and raised five children while living in South Dartmouth, Massachusetts. During his New Bedford years Bill served as a member of the executive committee and chief of pediatrics of St. Luke’s Hospital, physician for the New Bedford Child and Family Services, member of the long-range planning committee of the Massachusetts Medical Society and councilor of the New England Pediatric Society. His autobiography on pages 70 and 71 of the 1950 50-year book gives insight into the life of this warm and caring man.