NLCA remembers Edward Collins Contracting founder

ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Edward Collins, the founder of Edward Collins Contracting Ltd., a longtime member firm of the Newfoundland and Labrador Construction Association (NLCA), recently passed away at the age of 84.

Collins started the construction company 43 years ago and it continues to be a major employer in the Placentia area.

He leaves behind his wife of 61 years, Theresa, daughters Rose Marie, Anne Marie, Sandra and son Francis, as well as nine grandchildren: Jeffrey and Joshua Collins; Laurianne, David, Dennis and Mark Sutton; Billy, Dianne and Victoria Wells; and two great-grandchildren Hailey and Edward Collins as well as siblings Ned, Bruce and Kit O’Rielly.

Collins was orphaned at the age of two and taken in by his aunt and raised with her four children.

He completed his high school education and began working on a cartography ship called the Fort Francis circumnavigating from Halifax to the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon where he met his future wife, states his obituary. They settled in Jerseyside and began their family.

While working on the Argentia Naval Base, he completed the Civil Engineering Program and began to teach and mentor his co-workers before starting his business.