Arthur A. Collins

Arthur Andrews Collins (b. Sept. 9, 1909, d. Feb. 25, 1987) first gained national recognition as a teenager for significant advances in radio communication, and later founded his own radio engineering and manufacturing company in 1933. Rapidly expanding during World War II, Collins Radio Co. eventually grew into a Fortune 500 leader in avionics; military, space and commercial radio communications; telecommunication; and ultimately an innovator in melding computer and communication technology. Widely considered a genius in electronics innovation, he shunned personal publicity and is relatively little known today, even within the electronics community.

Arthur A. Collins was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma to Merle H. Collins (a mortgage banker) and Faith Andrews Collins (a graduate of Rockford College in Illinois). The family moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa when Arthur was 7. Merle founded Collins Farms Company in 1925, which combined inefficient small farms into one collective enterprise, using the best available equipment and modern practices (contour plowing and erosion control, crop rotation, newly available hybrid seed corn) to achieve greatly increased productivity. This novel approach was initially successful but faltered as the Great Depression hit. His son Arthur was intensely interested in radio, became a licensed amateur radio operator at age 14, and designed and built his own equipment, purchasing expensive vacuum tube with his father's help. Arthur Collins became expert in circuit design and wave propagation, publishing several articles in specialty journals.

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