On October 2, 2010, James Richard Collin, ended his courageous battle with cancer. He passed away at home with his family and loved ones by his side.
Jim leaves behind his loving wife of 3.5 years, Andrea Collin, four daughters, Cary Vierra (Tim), Laura Morin (Gary), Kelly Collin, and Jenn Byrd (Kenny), four handsome grandsons, and four beautiful great granddaughters. Jim was fortunate to have loved two beautiful women in his lifetime. His first wife of 45 years, Barbara Collin, precedes him in death. Jim had a large extended family, of which, many of the daughters’ and grandsons’ friends called him Dad
or Papa
. He was a role model to many and a real family man.
Jim was born on May 5, 1939 in San Francisco, California. In 1960 he married and settled into their family home of Palo Alto, where they raised four daughters. The girls kept him busy with coaching Bobby-Sox softball, camping trips, 4H clubs and of course, BOYS! Jim worked at Hewlett Packard, where he met and kept many long-lasting friends. During that time he held many positions. Jim was the engineering manager for Precision Frequency Sources (PFS). He aligned Laser Interferomtry, quartz crystal and Cesium beam technologies to form a manufacturing group called Precision Components Manufacturing (PCM). He made life much easier for the production people with his innovative ideas, tools and fixtures. He retired after 35 years of service. In his spare time, he followed his passion onto the flying field where he amazingly built and flew quarter-scale electric model airplanes, which was unheard of at that time; he managed to get those giant monsters into the sky to fly with such grace and beauty. He was also an active member of the Tom Cat club.
In order to honor the wonderful, kind and gentle man that Jim was, a Celebration of Life memorial will be held at the Hiller Aviation Museum, 601 Skyway Road, San Carlos, California, on Sunday, October 17th from 5:00 - 9:00pm. This will be a time to share stories, enjoy photos and remember the man Jim was, and will always be in our hearts.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to Camp Okizu. Please call 415.382.9083, or email, info@okizu.org.