Joseph T. Collins
| Joseph T. Collins | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 3, 1939 Crooksville, Ohio |
| Died | January 14, 2012 (aged 72) St. George Island, Florida |
| Residence | Lawrence, Kansas |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Herpetology |
| Institutions | University of Kansas Museum of Natural History Sternberg Museum Kansas Biological Survey |
| Alma mater | University of Cincinnati |
| Spouse | Suzanne Collins |
Joseph Thomas Collins, Jr. (July 3, 1939, Crooksville, Ohio – January 14, 2012) was an American herpetologist. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Collins authored 27 books and over 300 articles on wildlife, of which about 250 were on amphibians and reptiles. He was the founder of the Center for North American Herpetology (CNAH). He died while studying amphibians and reptiles on St. George Island, Florida on 14 January 2012. "For 60 years I was obsessed with herpetology," claimed Joe Collins
Collins recounted his early life in a 1997 interview: He was born to Luvadelle Bernice Collins of Crooksville, Ohio (homemaker), and a podiatrist, Joseph T. Collins (Cleveland College of Podiatry). He had two brothers, Jerry (US Navy) and Jeffery who were three and 16 years younger than him, respectively. He and his brother were excluded from Boy Scouts for being "too rowdy". (Despite this, in his adult life he was a supporter of the Scouts and served on the Friends of Hidden Valley Girl Scout Board of Directors in Lawrence). He caught his first snake, a queen snake, in a tin can around the age of 10-13. He had an avid interest in animals and collected so many animals, which he and his brothers housed in their backyard, that the City of Cincinnati shut them down for operating a zoo without a license. "You could get anything you wanted in those days," said Collins in regard to kinds of animals. At the time he had saved up $40 to buy an African Lion (price = $50).
He ended up in herpetology after shifting to keeping reptiles because they would fit in their basement. He believed this drove his ultimate interest in herpetology as a discipline. After high school, he attended the University of Cincinnati where he, by his own admission, lacked direction even though he had already started publishing scholarly scientific works at the age of 19. He credited ultimate direction as stemming from his own interests combined with his father's interest in fishing and outdoor activities. In 1967, he was hired as a vertebrate preparator by the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, where he worked for 30 years. He had already been corresponding with other herpetologists across the country. He earned his Associates from the University of Cincinnati, but had no further formal education.
He was among the group of young herpetologists and hobbyists including Kraig Adler (Cornell University) who founded the Ohio Herpetological Society in 1958, which later developed into the largest herpetological society, the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles under Collins' leadership.
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