JOSEPH H. COLLINS

1937 - 2022

COLLINS, Joseph H. Entrepreneur, Philanthropist Joseph Howland Collins died on April 21st of an aggressive cancer, at the age of 85. Mr. Collins and his wife Brigitte lived on the Boston waterfront for the past 40 years. He had an abiding affection for the City of Boston, with a special feeling for its wharves and maritime history. He was an adventurous spirit with abundant and evident joie de vivre and great physical courage. Collins was born in Bronxville, New York, the only child of Joseph and Martha Collins. He graduated from Notre Dame in 1959 and served proudly as a captain in the US Marine Corps (active duty 1959- 62, Vietnam War veteran). Harvard Business School brought him to New England, where he was to make his home. In 1964 he received his MBA cum laude. Collins ran the Boston Marathon with his business school roommate, Koni Ulbrich, in 1964. They finished after nightfall and claimed that they had reeled down Exeter Street so late they were almost booked for vagrancy. Collins climbed the major peaks in Tanganyika, Uganda and Kenya, and trekked to Base Camp of Everest following the footsteps of his mountaineering heroes. In 1984 Joe Collins married Brigitte Cazalis in the cathedral of Chartres, France, where her father and mother owned a renowned restaurant. Joe and Brigitte were instrumental in resettling and supporting a group of Tibetan refugees in Boston as part of a bill sponsored by Barney Frank and Edward Kennedy in the 1990s. They "adopted" a Tibetan family with four children, who have remained a close part of the Cazalis-Collins family. Financial consulting took Joe to Nepal, and after seven years of dividing their time between Boston and Nepal, the couple founded Friends of Maiti Nepal, a charitable organization whose mission is to support and aid Maiti Nepal, an anti-human trafficking organization based in Kathmandu. Some of the highlights of Joe's entrepreneurial career, which he shared with his classmate and business partner Koni Ulbrich, included 20 years at the head of Dovre ski bindings; the founding of Navtec, Inc., which became the internationally recognized leader in rigging for large sailing yachts, including numerous America's Cup racing boats; and extensive experience in commercial real estate with a special interest in historic preservation and modern uses of Massachusetts' centuries-old mill buildings. In a resourceful linking of two fields of endeavor, Collins and Ulbrich saw that Navtec's patented technology could be adopted for structural and architectural uses. Navtec provided the structural system for the I.M. Pei's glass Pyramide du Louvre. Another larger application of Navtec technology using the engineering and structural components of stainless steel rod yacht rigging, created the support system for the roof of the Musée des Beaux Arts in Montreal. For many years Joe served on the board of Commercial Wharf East. He was fascinated by the history of Commercial Wharf, and through years of research he furthered his interest in Boston's maritime history, its working waterfront, and the vital contribution of Sicilian fishermen. Joe Collins is remembered by his friends as a "gentle warrior, a person of great vitality, an honorable man," who was a mentor to many. He was generous and kind. He enjoyed life, kept fit and active, read extensively, and collected salient aphorisms, proverbs and quotations. As per his wishes, in lieu of flowers, contributions in memory of Joseph Collins may be made to Friends of Maiti Nepal. A Memorial Service celebrating his life will take place at a future date.

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