Obituary of Raymond Lester Collins

The family of Ray sadly announce his passing on October 3^rd, 2023 .

Dad lived to the wonderful age of 97 with his famous twinkle in his eye flirting with the nurses Monday and saying goodbye to his son and daughter Tuesday. He had a short stay in Dunrovin Lodge and 6 years at the Redwood Home after living on his own in the Arid Subdivision. 

Ray was the first-born child to Hilda and Lester Collins on April 17, 1926 Killdeer Saskatchewan. With brother Clayton, sister Mert and brother Jim born soon after.    

As a very young teenager Ray left the family home to work and help send money back to his family as the well-known Hunger Thirties were in full force.  At the young age of 18 he enlisted in the army, and as he was too young to go overseas, the army used him as a boxer in competitions.  Anyone that was on the end of his punch did not do so well.  Then he was off to the Oil Fields before moving to Vancouver Island for work.  He soon met the love of his life there Gladys Hadley and they soon married October 4, 1947, in Nanaimo.

He soon became a logger working with his father-in-law and other family members.  Gladys came with 6-year-old Verna whom Ray helped raise as his own.  And with no time to waste, from 1948 to 1951 Gary, Gail, Barbara, and Jack were born.  Now we are a family of 7 and we think we are running out of trees on the Island so in 1952 the family moved to Clinton BC where they logged and enjoyed the village of Clinton till 1968 and then moved to Quesnel for more logging.  It was not long after this that Gladys became ill and sadly Gladys passed in 1970. 

With family support Ray carried on with life and his logging career.  He later changed things up and started hauling logs for his sons Logging Company. 

When the Collins family moved to Quesnel, they brought Old Red and Old Yellow.  Old Red was a 1960 Mack Truck and Old Yellow was a 1961 Mack also., The trucks hauled their last logs in 1980, but Ray continued trucking only with newer trucks.

Ray retired and sold to his son in 1996 and enjoyed life travelling and living in Arid Subdivision.

Ray had a deep love and respect for family as the family did for him, He did very well in sports and had a natural talent playing any musical instrument from ear. In the early years his family enjoyed listening to him play in family jam sessions.   

Survived by daughter Verna (Ken), Gary (Kit), Gail (Gorden) Barbara (predeceased Jerry) predeceased son Jack and grandson Mike. Also survived by 8 grandchildren and numerous great and great great grandchildren. 

With Dad being on his own for many of his later years the family is truly indebted to sister Barbara for all the care she gave to her Dad.  The family would like to send special thanks to Cy Makiff, the Staff at Redwood, and Dunrovin for the kindness and support through Dads last 5 years and all that loved him. 

The celebration of life for our Dad will be determined at a later date.