Scott Collins

Message from Bill Chang:

On the very first day of school, Mark and I had finished unpacking and were sitting in the middle of the floor playing a game of chess with the door open. Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone walking past the doorway, then back up, poke his head in and announce, "Hi, how y'all doing, my name is Scott Collins and I'm from West Virginia". If you can picture Scott saying that with his thick West Virginia accent, and me being from New Jersey, then you'll understand me thinking to myself, OK, I'm in hillbilly hell! It turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. After knowing Scott for just a short time, it became obvious that he was one of the warmest, friendliest and most intelligent people I've ever met. Here's a little background on Scott for those who may not have known him as well as I did. Scott grew up in Beckley, WVa and lived with his mother, grandmother and two sisters. I believe his dad had passed away when Scott was still fairly young. They lived in a modest house and his mother worked as a nurse to support the family. Scott started college with a double major in Physics and Computer Science. I believe it was in his Sophomore year that he decided to drop Computer Science so he could concentrate on Physics and finish early so he could help support his family. Well, Scott did finish early. In fact, by the time most of us received our degrees at the end of 4 years, Scott was halfway through his PhD program. He was conducting research and doing his dissertation on Black Holes. He got into a major disagreement with his advisor over some theories. The short of it is he called him an idiot (or something to that effect) and left the program and as far as I know, he never finished his PhD. Upon leaving school, he returned to Beckley and started a consulting company developing various personalized software applications for small businesses in town. I remember he told me he grossed some $4000 his first year, $40000+ his second year and $200000+ his third year. He eventually bought a seat on the Florida stock exchange and was trading stocks/commodities by day and working his software business at night. He was an intense guy to say the least but it paid off. He eventually moved his whole family to Ohio so they could make a better life for themselves and I have no doubt he eventually became a self-made millionaire. Scott was not your average book worm. He was also a very good javelin thrower. During Freshmen year, he would often take his javelin to the intramural fields and practice. He had aspirations of trying out for the Olympic team but I think he gave up on that dream after Freshmen year to focus on his studies. As intense and focused as he was, Scott also had a humorous side. He had a friend in the Physics department that he loved to play jokes on. I don't recall the friend's name but he was short, very young looking and very much the proverbial nerd. I attended summer session with Scott one year. His friend decided to go to the XXX movie playing in town one night. Scott called the theater, described his friend pretending to be his father and told the manager that he's underage and not to admit him. He returned to the apartment fuming and I can still see Scott falling out of his chair laughing. Scott Collins was an amazing man and a very good friend. I'm priviledged to have known him and I will miss him.