Roll Call Tribute

Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors obituary

Thomas Harland Collins – March 19, 2015

Thomas Harland Collins, 86, of Amarillo, died Thursday, March 19, 2015.

Services will be at 2:00 p.m., Monday, March 23, 2015, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 2525 Wimberly Rd. with the Rev. Dr. Clay Brown officiating.  Arrangements are by Boxwell Brothers Funeral Directors, 2800 Paramount Blvd.

Thomas Harland Collins was born Dec. 11, 1928, in Amarillo to Bryan and Bernice Collins.  He attended Lee Bivins Elementary School, Central Junior High School and graduated from Amarillo High School in 1947.  While at Amarillo High School, Harland was co-captain of the 1946 Sandie football team and was selected as an All-State quarterback.  He attended Texas A&M on a football scholarship until an injury ended his playing years.

He was married on Dec. 27, 1949, to his lifelong sweetheart, Peggy Dryden, in First Presbyterian Church of Amarillo.  He graduated from Texas A&M in1951, moving to Portland, Ore. with Carnation Milk Co.  In 1962, Harland attended Dubuque Theological Seminary, graduated in 1965, and became the minister of First Presbyterian Church in Guymon, Okla.  He and Peggy raised their young family and he served this church for 27 years.  He was honored with a Doctor of Divinity degree from University of Ozarks in Clarksville, Ark.

In 1985, he was elected Moderator of the Synod of the Sun in the Presbyterian Church USA after having served as Moderator of Cimarron Presbytery.  While living in Guymon, Harland was chairman of United Fund, president of Kid’s Inc., organizer of NoMan’s Land Senior Citizens and an organizer of Meals on Wheels.  He was chairman of the Red Cross blood drive and was chosen as Guymon schools Friend of the Year.  For many years, he served on the governing boards of Mary Holmes College in West Point, Miss. and on Presbyterian Children’s Services in Waxahachie.  In Amarillo, he served as ruling elder in Westminster Presbyterian Church in 1960, and on the board of Presbyterian Home for Children.

He was calm and steady by nature and was gifted with a compassionate heart.  His life was one of giving to God and to others.  He was concerned for those who hurt and were without, and he felt a strong need for healing the brokenhearted and those who knew no peace.  He had a quick wit and brought laughter to his family and friends to whom he was a rock and a blessing.

Harland remembers, “In the football clubhouse at Amarillo’s Butler’s field, there was a sign on the wall that read:  I cried when I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.  For three years in the fall of 1944, 1945 and 1946, I saw that sign everyday and it stayed with me my whole life.”

The family is grateful to Hospice Care of the Southwest for their loving care.

He was preceded in death by father, Bryan Houston Collins; his mother, Bernice Lochridge Collins; a brother, Burrell Collins; and a son, David Burrell Collins.

Survivors include his wife, Peggy Dryden Collins; sons, Harland Dryden and Thomas Edward Collins and his wife Allison; a daughter, Amy Collins Schneiderman and her husband, Steven; grandchildren, Audrey Collins Goonan and husband Brad, Shelly Collins Brabner and husband Michael, Rachel Collins Downey and husband Stephen, Rylan Collins and wife Kate, Abigael Collins, Graham Collins, Danielle Collins, Kaela Collins, Tony Collins, Alex Schneiderman and Christian Schneiderman; three great-grandsons, David Brabner, William Brabner and Paxton Downey; two brothers, Dale Collins and Bryan Collins, Jr. and wife Sharon, all of Amarillo; and his brother-in-law, Ford Madison.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorials to Harland and Peggy Collins Scholarship for physically challenged students at West Texas A&M University or to Presbyterian Home for Children in Amarillo.

The family will receive friends from 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m., Sunday, March 22, 2015, at the funeral home.