Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
- Everett Alfred Collins
- Fred Collins
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
Everett Alfred “Fred” Collins was born one of ten children to Irish immigrant and yeoman, later merchant, James Collins and his wife Elizabeth Frances Knobbs on a farm near Smithfield, Ontario in Northumberland County, January 19, 1870. Collins received his public elementary education in Smithfield, matriculated to high school in Brighton, and graduated from the Model School in Madoc, Ontario. Upon graduation, Collins taught in Hastings County for a year. After that time, Collins worked for the railway with a survey party laying the Grand Trunk Railway line. While in this position, Collins met businessman Samuel J. Ritchie and through him, Almon Penfield Turner, who eventually became the general manager of the Canadian Copper Company.
In 1900, Turner offered Collins a job as a clerk at the Copper Cliff Mine. Collins switched to the East Smelter and in late 1901 he entered Queen’s University while continuing to work in Copper Cliff during his summer vacations. In 1905, Collins graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in mining engineering and began work as a clerk on the Canadian Copper Company’s hydro-electric development at High Falls. In 1906, Collins worked in a laboratory in Hamilton, Ontario testing samples of cobalt-silver ores for a smelter. Collins went to Joplin, Missouri in January 1907 to work as a superintendent of mines at a lead and zinc mining company for several years. In 1909, Collins returned to Canada, where he worked investigating non-metallic deposits for a financial group before being appointed Inspector of Mining for the Ontario Department of Lands and Forests. On November 11, 1918, Collins returned to Copper Cliff to begin work as Safety Engineer for Inco, and later became Assistant to the General Manager and Vice-President of Inco in 1920. In this position, Collins served under three vice-presidents during his twenty-six years of service.
Collins was best known for his participation in local politics. Collins served as a councilor in Copper Cliff from 1923 to 1930. He was elected as mayor of Copper Cliff in 1930, and served in this role until his retirement in 1946. After retirement, Collins remained active, serving as chairman of the Sudbury Memorial Hospital and as a member of the Ontario Cancer Commission. He was also a member of the Queen’s University Alumni Association, the board of governors of Queen’s University, trustee of Albert College, Belleville, member of the local advisory board of the Guaranty Trust Company, member of the Idylwylde Golf Club, member of the Granite Club, past president of the Copper Cliff Club, honorary member of the Canadian Legion, Copper Cliff branch, member of the Shrine and Masonic organizations, past president of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, member of the Ontario Association of Professional Engineers, chairman of the Ontario National War Finance Committee in Sudbury and Manitoulin Island, past president of the Sudbury Rotary Club, and secretary of Inco’ Quarter Century Club.
Collins married music teacher Margaret Maude Walsh in Kingston, Ontario in 1909. They had one son, George E. Collins, who became a prominent Sudbury lawyer. Maude passed away in October 1935. Collins later remarried Beatrice M. Jacques in September 1946.
Fred Collins passed away on February 6, 1952 at the age of 74 in Copper Cliff, Ontario.