Collins, Russell Grant 1961-2002

COLLINS, MARCUS

Posted By: volunteer (email)
Date: 8/7/2005 at 15:21:16

PELLA - Russell Grant Collins, 41, of Pella, died Sunday, April 7, at Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines.

His memorial service will be 1:30 p.m. Friday at Second Reformed Church in Pella, the Revs. Sophie and Steve Mathonnet-Vander Well officiating. Memorials: Habitat for Humanity of Marion County. No visiting hours are scheduled. Van Dyk-Duven Funeral Home in Pella is in charge of arrangements.

Russell Grant Collins was born April 5, 1961, in Pittsburgh, Pa., to Daniel Varnum and Lee Joanne Marcus Collins. Before he was a year old, he was diagnosed with osteogensis imperfecta, a disease characterized by brittle bones. During childhood he spent various periods in the Shriners Hospital in Chicago, Ill., for repair of fractures. As a teen, Russ was an elder in the Olivet Presbyterian Church on Staten Island, N.Y. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School, a magnet school for science and mathematics, in New York City in 1979.

The family moved to Pella and Russ attended Central College, where he was active in drama and a member of Alpha Psi Omega, the drama honor society. He attended the Yucatan program in his junior year. He graduated in 1983 with a major in mathematics and computer science. He then pursued graduate study at Iowa State University in Ames. In November 2001 he completed a course of study in microcomputers at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa.

For six years he was a statistician for the Iowa Department of Agriculture, and for two years was a programmer for Lawyer Forms in Des Moines. For the past seven years he had been on permanent disability. He loved to read, collect books, and enjoyed role-play games. He enjoyed musical theater, especially Gilbert and Sullivan, and plays.

He was a member of several science fiction and game organizations. He joined the Second Reformed Church when his family moved to Pella in 1979, and was a Stephen minister for several years. At the time of his death he was active with Marion County Democrats and Habitat for Humanity of Marion County.

He is survived by his mother, Lee J. Collins of Pella; his sister and family: Rebecca Lee Collins DeLecuona and husband Dr. Juan DeLecuona and daughter Lillie of Augusta, Ga.; a brother and family: Benjamin Varnum Clifford and Nancy Prickett Collins and their children Tessa Madelyn Marie, Ashton and Quinn Collins of Platteville, Wis.; and a long-time friend and housemate of the family, Barbara Jean Ashton of Pella.

He was preceded in death by his father, Dr. Daniel V. Collins, in 1996.

The Oskaloosa Herald, April 17, 2002