Jonathan “Jock” Collens '31 Passes

At 101 years old, Jock had the distinction of being Hawken’s oldest living alumnus.

 

A memorial service will be held at Hawken’s Lyndhurst Chapel on November 12. Details can be found in the following obituary written by Jock’s daughter Emilie:

 

Jonathan L Collens Sr. ("Jock") was born in October 21, 1915 in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Hawken School and was graduated from Yale University in 1938 and Harvard Law school in 1941.  He was affiliated with the law firm, Sullivan and Cromwell in New York City, when World War II broke out.  He served in the Army Anti-aircraft Artillery and was a Forward Observer in Germany when he was wounded by a Sniper on Easter Sunday, 1945.

 

After the war, he returned to Cleveland and worked at Reliance Electric and Engineering Company, from which he retired as Vice President of Manufacturing in 1980.  He was always very active in community leadership, having been the Board President of Vocational Guidance Services, the Arthritis Association, and the Cleveland Heights Board of Education.

 

He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Judith (Rogers) Collens, and their five children, Jonathan L Collens Jr., Emilie Collens Illson, Sarah Collens Adams, Edmund Rogers Collens, and Susan Collens Griffin, as well as 13 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. Jock was a man of many interests and talents throughout his life. In 1975, he and his family moved to their dairy farm in Mesopotamia Ohio, where – among many other accomplishments – he single-handedly build a freestanding stone wall over 1/3 mile long.

In 1990 the Collens moved to Medina, Ohio, where he cut down trees to build a substantial log cabin by himself at the age of 80. He knew what children liked, and made everything from toy boats and Kiddie Cars with wagons to an amazing playground with a tunnel in a stone fort, a swing set, slide, playhouse, and a sandbox for his grandchildren.

 

A Memorial Service will be held at the Hawken Lower School Chapel in Lyndhurst on November 12th at 11:00 A.M.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that something be done for another person, even if it is someone you do not know. Interment will be in the Spring at Tioga Center, New York, in the Ransom/Latimer family burial vault built by Jock's great grandfather in the middle of the 19th century.

 

Contributions in his memory may be made to Hawken School.