Richard Harvey Collin (March 4, 1932 – January 19, 2010, or January 20, 2010) was an American historian, university professor, restaurant critic, and cookbook writer. He was notable for his research in the life and presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Collin's contributions to Theodore Roosevelt scholarship included his dissertation, two monographs on Roosevelt, editing a book length collection of papers on the President, journal articles, and book reviews related to other writers' works on the President. His food writing, much of it written together with his wife Rima, included cookbooks and restaurant reviews.
Early life and education
Collin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Bernard ("Barney") Collin, a self-taught master craftsman tool and die maker, and his mother was Esther Reubens Collin.
Collin received his undergraduate degree (AB) from Kenyon College in 1954. At Kenyon College, Collin was an English major and belonged to the Middle Kenyon Association. During Collin's time in the Middle Kenyon Association, he became friends with fellow student, Kenyon graduate, and future novelist E.L. Doctorow.
Collin received his PhD from New York University in 1966. The PhD was in American Civilization, and Collin wrote a dissertation on Theodore Roosevelt. Collin's dissertation, The Image of Theodore Roosevelt in American History and Thought, 1885-1965, discusses how Roosevelt appears in both historical and popular literature during his life and after his death.
Personal life
Collin's parents were immigrants from England who settled in Philadelphia. According to the announcement published in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Collin became engaged to Frances Wene in 1954. He married Wene on August 15, 1954. They were divorced in 1969. After their divorce, Wene married Robert H. Levy, an attorney. During the 1960s, Collin met his second wife, Rima Drell Reck, a professor of comparative literature at the University of New Orleans. They were married from 1969 until her death in 1998.
After Reck's death in 1998, Collin wrote Travels with Rima (2002), a memoir of his life together with Reck.
Two years after Reck's death, Collin met a widow, Phyllis Mayronne. Mayronne's late spouse, Harry Mayronne, Sr., had worked in advertising. According to Larson, the two shared a travel agent, and this agent introduced them to each other. Mayronne was to become Collin's partner during his last years. Fitzmorris writes that Collin and Mayronne met "on a European trip."
Career as historian and university professor
Collin jointed the faculty at Louisiana State University in New Orleans in 1966. In 1974, the university underwent an official name change and became the University of New Orleans. Collin taught history and was a specialist on the life of Theodore Roosevelt. In his book Theodore Roosevelt: Culture, Diplomacy, and Expansion: A New View of American Imperialism, Collin seeks to correct the caricatured view of Roosevelt as the imperialist Rough Rider. Collin reminds his readers that Roosevelt was a man of various accomplishments, was well educated, was sophisticated, was a published author, and who possessed considerable interests in history, the sciences, literature, and the fine arts. In addition, Collin argues that, during Roosevelt's presidency, the United States itself became more sophisticated and cosmopolitan.
Throughout his career as a college professor, Collin published articles and book reviews in scholarly periodicals. Although there were exceptions, these articles and book reviews focused on Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and, to a lesser degree, Woodrow Wilson.
With changing mores in the 1960s, Collin went from being a conventional dresser in a business suit and a necktie to a more bohemian appearance, and he was known around the campus for wearing sandals and often wearing purple clothing. His love of purple extended to his car, as Collin owned a purple and white Cadillac, and, during the 1970s, Collin demonstrated his unconventionality by owning an Edsel.
Collin maintained longtime friendships with his former University of New Orleans students, including Michael Ledet, an artist and book designer, and Tom Fitzmorris, a food critic. In an interview after Collin's death, Ledet stated that Collin "...was an eccentric, sweet man, an intellectual in every sense of the word... [and he] ...was my best friend for 45 years."
Collin enjoyed teaching and would sometimes don costumes in his classes. According to Ledet, Collin was a "magnificent teacher, very dramatic" and that the students "really loved him, a lot more than the restaurants did."