Anne Collins, a Mainer who donated extensively to the University of Maine for the advancement and exposure of arts, died Sunday. Collins was 88.
Collins, and her late husband, Richard “Dick” Collins, donated $6 million to UMaine in 2007, most of which went to the renovation of what is now the Richard R. and Anne A. Collins Center for the Arts.
The donation and involvement with the center helped bring people together from across the state, UMaine President Joan Ferrini-Mundy said Wednesday.
“Anne will be remembered for her incredible generosity and for creating opportunities for others. Her impact can be seen in everyone who gathers at the Collins Center and in the many ways her support continues to benefit the university,” Ferrini-Mundy said.
Anne and Richard Collins have been previously heralded by state and local officials as influential Mainers dedicated to giving back to the state and were awarded the Stillwater Presidential Award in 2007 from UMaine for their support of the university.
A UMaine alumna, Collins was born in Belfast and raised in Farmington. After high school, Collins studied education at UMaine where she met her future husband. She graduated and married Richard Collins in 1961 before moving to Connecticut, where she taught second grade for three years.
After her daughter Jennifer was born in 1964, Collins became a stay-at-home mother. Her second daughter, Pamela, was born in 1966. That same year, the family started moving around the globe as Richard Collins’ work as an international businessman called for it. Over the next 15 years, the family lived in Bermuda, Lebanon, Iran and Japan.
Although she lived in many countries during her life, Collins and her family returned to Maine at least once a year to spend the summer in Belfast where her mother and stepfather lived and settled in Northport in 1992. Richard Collins died in 2014 at the age of 77.
For nearly 20 years, Collins had been living in a home her and her husband had built near the ocean. Recently, Collins enjoyed playing mahjong and visiting her children in Searsmont and Minnesota.
Collins is survived by her two daughters and four grandchildren. Her visitation will be held at Riposta Funeral Home in Belfast from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday. A private burial service will be held. The family has requested donations be made to The Collins Center for the Arts in lieu of flowers.