Richard H. Collin

COLLIN Richard H. Collin, retired food critic and university history professor, passed away at his home in Birmingham, Alabama late Tuesday, January 19, 2010. He moved from New Orleans to Birmingham after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He was born in Philadelphia, PA March 4, 1932, the only child of Barney and Esther Collin, immigrants from London. Educated at Kenyon College and New York University, he moved to New Orleans in the late 1960s to begin a long career teaching history at the University of New Orleans. He was a Theodore Roosevelt scholar, author of several books on the subject, published in 1985, 1990 and 1992, as well as many articles and essays. He pioneered restaurant food criticism in New Orleans and wrote "The New Orleans Underground Gourmet" (Simon and Schuster, 1970). With his late wife of 28 years, Rima (Rima Drell Reck), he wrote "The New Orleans Cookbook" which was published by Knopf in 1975. That book has become a classic, still in print today. They also wrote "The New Orleans Restaurant Guide: a Critical Guide to Eating Out" as well as "The Pleasures of Seafood". Following the death of his wife Rima in 1998, he wrote "Travels with Rima: a Memoir". Richard Collin traveled widely and loved museums, opera, modern British composers, --- and considered himself a "baseball and football intellectual". He is survived by first cousins Sheila Bayfield, Daphne Laredo and Myrtle Hirsh of London, England and a host of other cousins. He is remembered by his devoted companion Phyllis Mayronne and good friend Michael Ledet. There will be a private memorial service in New Orleans at a later date.