A former McEachern High School head football coach and Atlanta Falcons chaplain was mourned Friday after he was killed the night before while crossing a street in west Cobb County.
A memorial service for Charles H. Collins, 66, is set for Monday at 1:00pm at Smyrna First United Methodist Church, 1315 Concord Road.
Cobb police spokesman Mike Bowman said Collins was attempting to cross Atlanta Road in Smyrna just before 7 p.m. Thursday when he was hit by a southbound 2004 Chevrolet Silverado.
Collins was taken to Emory Adventist Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Bowman said the pickup driver, Nicholas W. Bryant, 25, of Carrollton, stopped after the collision and is not expected to be charged.
Collins was a former head football coach at McEachern in Powder Springs from 1976 to 1982.
McEachern Athletic Director Jim Dorsey said Collins’ death came as a shock to the school.
“He was just an unbelievably fine person,” Dorsey said Friday. “He had a magical personality with kids.”
Dorsey also said Collins had a reputation as a “great history teacher. I still hear teachers comment that he may have been the best history teacher that they had ever witnessed in school.” Dorsey said Collins remained a teacher after stepping down from coaching in 1982.
Dorsey said Collins’ three children attended McEachern and his son, Jeff, played on the football team when Dorsey was head coach. Collins' son-in-law, Jess Simpson, is head coach at Buford High School.
Collins graduated from Campbell High School in Smyrna in 1964, the same year he was named “most valuable lineman” in the The Atlanta Journal -- GHSA All Star Game, according to information provided by his family. He was an All-Conference defensive tackle at Auburn University and was named to the Academic All-SEC team in 1966-67.
In 1968, he signed as a free agent with the Dallas Cowboys and later played eight seasons in the Canadian Football League.
After a career-ending neck injury in 1976, his family said Collins returned to Georgia and became head football coach at McEachern for seven years.
In 1983, he joined Athletes in Action, the athletic ministry for Campus Crusade for Christ, where he served as chaplain for the Atlanta Falcons for 20 years. He retired from the ministry in 2006.
Collins was preceded in death by his wife of 35 years, Melda Pressley Collins. He is survived his wife, Pam Collins, and children Tricia Collins Simpson, Leigh Collins Perkins, Jeff Collins, Will Schultz, Matt Schulz and Leeann Schultz Allen. He is also survived by his parents, Clarence and Ann Collins.
Medford-Peden Funeral Home & Crematory Inc. in Marietta is handling arrangements.
Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this report
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