The African American community has lost another giant in the world of education. At the age of 74, Brother Michael Collins died Sunday January 8 after a long fight with lung cancer.
“Minneapolis lost a great role model this week. Brother Collins was not only a talented educator, but a champion of the less fortunate and a dear friend to those who knew him,” said Congressman Keith Ellison.
Collins, a St. Mary’s University Trustee, was the first African American to graduate from DeLaSalle High School in 1955. Collins would become president of DeLaSalle, his alma-mater in 1991. His contributions to the high school where nearly half of the 650 students are members of minority groups and a third live in or near poverty, resulted in doubling enrollment for student body, raised more than $25 million from benefactors which created an academic environment in which at least 96 percent of graduates annually have matriculated to college in the past decade. Under Collins, DeLaSalle boasted top-flight academics. It rivals predominantly white and wealthier private high schools in terms of National Merit Scholars and college placement rates.
DeLaSalle, named for John Baptist DeLaSalle, a French priest in the 17th century who established a Christian order of teachers to educate poor children, says it offers the largest per-capita financial aid program of any Minnesota high school. However, unlike some other private schools, Collins insisted that all families had to pay something and work off tuition, no matter how poor, how brilliant or how athletic was their student.
“One of the first African American graduates of DeLaSalle, Brother Collins turned down offers from colleges in order to transform the Minnesota high school into one of the highest achieving private schools in the area. When Brother Collins became President in 1991, DeLaSalle suffered from a 20-year enrollment decline and red ink. Within his first year, Michael balanced the budget,” Ellison said.
Collins joined Christian Brothers in 1957 during his studies at St. Mary’s University of Winona for religious studies. Collins is also a prominent figure nationally in Catholic education. Collins sat on the board of directors of the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) from 1996-2004, serving as president of the secondary schools department from 1996-2000 and as vice chair of the full board from 2001-2004.
Collins would further work at four Christian Brothers affiliated high schools; DeLaSalle from 1959-1967, moving to Shanley High School in Fargo, ND in 1967, St. Mary’s College High School in Berkeley, CA, in 1980. Collins returned to the Twin Cities in 1987 as one of the first co-principals of the newly merged Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul.
He received the NCEA’s 2007 Sister Catherine T. McNamee, CSJ Award for his leadership in promoting diversity in Catholic education.
"Brother Collins knew that education could be a force for economic mobility. Many lives have been changed because of Brother Collins, and the entire Minneapolis community is better off because of his leadership," said Ellison.
