Robert Joseph Collier
| Robert J. Collier | |
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Picture of Robert J. Collier, by Arthur Hewitt
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| Born |
Robert Joseph Collier June 17, 1876 New York City |
| Died | November 9, 1918 (aged 42) |
| Education |
Georgetown University (1894) Harvard University Oxford University |
| Known for | Collier Trophy |
| Spouse(s) | Sara Steward Van Alen (1881-1963) (m. 1902–18) |
| Parent(s) | Peter Fenelon Collier |
| Relatives | Robert Collier, cousin |
Robert Joseph Collier (June 17, 1876 – November 9, 1918) was the son of Peter Fenelon Collier, and a principal in the publishing company P. F. Collier & Son. Upon his father's death, he became head of the company, and for a time was editor of Collier's Weekly. He was president of the Aero Club of America.
He was born in New York City on June 17, 1876 to Katherine Louise Collier (nee Dunue) and Peter Fenelon Collier.
He attended St. Francis College and then transferred to Georgetown University and graduated in 1894, winning the Merrick Medal from the Philodemic Society that same year. He received the degree of A. B. from Georgetown University. He then spent two years at Harvard University and Oxford University.
He married Sara Steward Van Alen (1881-1963), a daughter of James John Van Alen and Emily Astor as well as a granddaughter of William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn. They married on 26 July 1902 in Newport, Rhode Island. They had no children. Prior to his marriage he dated the showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, amongst others.
Editor and publisher of the Collier's Weekly, he was known to have converted the illustrations in the publication from black and white ink to color
Collier, was an aviation enthusiast. A friend of Orville Wright and a director of the Wright Company, purchased a Wright Model B aircraft in 1911 and loaned it to the United States Army, which assigned it to Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois. Foulois and civilian Wright Company pilot Phil Parmalee used this aircraft to fly along the Rio Grande border of Mexico and the United States in one of the first scouting duties by the U.S. Army using an airplane. Foulois and Parmalee later crashed the airplane into the Rio Grande but escaped from drowning. Having that plane repaired, he then took it to fly Jimmy Hare to film the construction of the Panama Canal by flying over the construction site in the same Wright Biplane, B type. He commissioned a hydro-aeroplane plane to be constructed in 1913 to attempt to cross the Atlantic.
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