Monday, June 14, 2010

Longtime Gannett sports journalist Collins dies

Don Collins (left) worked for Gannett newspapers including USA Today and The Arkansas Gazette, where I first met him. He died last night, according to friends who are remembering him fondly on his Facebook page. I will add more information about him as it becomes available.

Please share any additional information in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com].

[Photo: Southview Baptist Church]
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3 comments:

  1. Amir6/15/2010 2:32 AM

    We chatted up about the Redskins and young Tiger Woods in Rosslyn. RIP buddy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6/15/2010 9:26 AM

    Great guy, and organizer of USA Today's baseball effort and one of the founders of USA Today, joining the staff two months before it launched.
    He had a really long battle against cancer, which he finally lost Sunday. We all knew about that, but he never complained and on one occasion pitched on the softball team the day after he returned from surgery.
    When you put together his obit, you might mention that he also was very active in the Southview Baptist Church in Herndon, Va., where he was assistant to the pastor. He would appreciate that. I never thought he wore his religion on his sleeve (unlike Jack Kelley, who I always thought was a hypocrite), but he was very active in his church especially after he retired from USAT in 2007.
    Leaving USAT amounted was one of the big losses for the paper. He was a good manager, creative and caring both for the paper and the feeling of the reporters he supervised. After he left, we would get an occasional email, but it is difficult to keep up relationships when you don't see someone every day.
    He grew up in Kentucky, was a journalism graduate of Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Ky. He also worked at newspapers in Bowling Green, Ky.; Henderson, Ky.; Jackson, Miss., and Little Rock, Ark. Don and his wife Cheryl married in 1991.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6/15/2010 8:26 PM

    Don had so many wonderful friends at USA TODAY. We mourn his passing and celebrate his life. We are all better for knowing him.
    See his wife Cheryl's note below.

    In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial to the Don Collins Journalism Scholarship at Western Kentucky University (http://www.wku.edu ). Recipients of this scholarship will be full-time students who work for the College Heights Herald, the on-campus student publication. Don credited the experience he received with the Herald as the place where he "learned to be a journalist" and it seems a fitting way to honor him.

    ReplyDelete

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