Loving husband, devoted father, and distinguished international broadcasting director for the Voice of America.
On Thursday, July 7th longtime Wessynton homeowner, Fred Collins, passed away peacefully at the age of 98. He was surrounded by his wife, two sons, and daughter-in-law. Fred was a WWII Veteran and enlisted in the US Army in 1942 shortly after his 19th birthday. He served in the US Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945 as a radio operator aboard B25 Mitchell and Lockheed Lodestar aircraft. During WWII, he traveled to the Middle East, India, North Africa including Egypt and Morocco, Italy, and France. He fought in the highly successful Naples-Foggia campaign. After the end of WWII, he attended Georgetown University on the G.I. Bill. While at Georgetown, he founded the original Georgetown University radio station (WGTB) and went on to create a network of college campus radio stations and advised students and faculty on the formation and construction of six campus radio stations.
After graduating from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service he worked as an announcer at WNLK radio station in Norwalk, Connecticut. His roles at WNLK included the ‘man on the street’, ‘morning walk-up show’, children’s programming, music programming, and newscasting. During the 1950s, he worked a variety of jobs in Japan including that as an Information Specialist and Program Director for Armed Forces Radio (AFRS); Television Announcer for Nippon Television JOAX-TV in Tokyo; Radio Information Specialist for the U.S. Army Psychological Warfare Division; Radio Announcer on Tokyo radio station JOKR; War Correspondent in Vietnam during the Vietnamese War: and Radio Producer; and as an Information Specialist for Radio Free Asia. While in Japan he served as Press Secretary of the US Embassy and acted as the US Embassy Public Affairs Officer for three Japanese Prefectures.
In the 1960s, he joined the U.S. Information Agency’s (USIA) International Broadcast Service as a Regional Director for the Far East Division. As program director, he created content and programming to support U.S. objectives and psychological campaigns. This role took him back to Japan for 5 and ½ years, returning to the U.S. in 1969 with the USIA’s Voice of America (VOA). While at the VOA, he produced a series of pieces entitled Profile on an American. The series was an effort to explain America to an international audience within a mutual frame of reference which included profiles on a schoolteacher, doctor, French horn player, farmer, steel worker and editor, among others. He remained with the VOA until his retirement in 1980. He was the Deputy Director for the VOA East Asia and Pacific Division and was also the Chief of Research for the Director of the USIA. While at VOA, he completed a Master of Arts in International Communications and doctoral coursework in International Communications from American University.
After retiring from 31 years of Civil and Military Service, he went on to become a real estate broker for Town and Country Realty achieving the Million Dollar Sales Club in 1988 and multiple Silver Key, Gold Key, and President’s awards. He was an accomplished woodworker and taught woodworking courses to adults and was part of the Washington DC Woodworkers Guild. He crafted meticulously researched Shaker Furniture reproductions using period-correct hand tools, glues, and varnishes. He was also an accomplished cinematographer and photographer and a lifetime member of the Small-Gauge Film Society of Japan and a member of the Washington Society of Cinematographers.
He was a devoted husband, was married for 69 years, and often credited his longevity to the care and attention of his loving wife, Teruyo. When once asked what he considered his most enduring legacy he simply said, ‘his children’. Fred will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery.
