Collins, Edwin J. (Edwin James) 1875-1956

Collins was born in 1875 in Greenland, Michigan near Ontonagon. His father, who owned a dry goods store, died when he was seven years old. His mother moved Edwin and his brother to Calumet to live with her parents. Collins attended local schools and worked in mine offices before enlisting to fight in the 1898 Spanish American War. When he returned, he attended the college and graduated in 1903 as a mining engineer. The grandfather whom Collins went to live with was Captain Thomas Hoatson, a well-known superintendent at the Calumet & Hecla Mine. Uncles James and Thomas H. Hoatson would rise to even higher fame as the founders of the Calumet and Arizona Copper Company, one of the biggest players in the developing copper district around Bisbee, Arizona. With this extended family₇and a high-quality education from the Michigan College of Mines₇Collins embarked on a fascinating career that took him to some of the world₂s best-known mining districts, including Bisbee, Arizona; Tonopah, Nevada; and Butte, Montana. Collins married Edith Cook in 1906 and built a home in Tonopah. After their first son was born, Edith insisted the family move back to civilization and her family in Duluth. Collins left his uncles₂ employment and opened an office in Duluth as an independent mining engineer. After the birth of his third son, Collins moved the family to Calumet and he took up work again for his uncles. He served on the board of directors for the Calumet & Arizona and participated in negotiations that sold C & A to Phelps Dodge in 1931. He also served with the Bureau of Mines during the Second World War. Edwin Collins remained a committed alumnus of the college throughout his life. He never missed a class reunion, maintained contact as part of a worldwide network of Tech₂s mining engineering alumni, and even served on the Board of Control from 1929 to 1935. Although he and his wife relocated to Berkeley following the war, Collins died here in the Copper Country. He suffered a cerebral hemorrhage right on the Tech campus while attending the 1956 class reunion (excerpted from Michigan Tech Magazine, Fall 2007).