Henry F. Collins

Henry F. Collins (died 1993) served Billerica for more than half a century, as a member and longtime chairman of the School Committee and then for nineteen years as the town's principal assessor. The Howe High School class roll of 1931 includes a Henry Francis Collins, probably the same man. In his later years he lived at 329 Boston Road.

He first ran for the School Committee in 1936 and lost a one year seat by seven votes after a recount, and he lost again in 1937 before winning election in 1938. By 1940 he was the committee's vice chairman and purchasing agent, and he was its chairman during the Second World War and again from 1954 to 1959, when he also chaired the Elementary School Building Committee to plan another school (1956-1960). He was defeated for reelection in 1959; the town's memorial gives his school committee service as 1940 to 1958.

In 1960, after the death of assessor Daniel J. Hurley, the voters elected him principal assessor for the unexpired term, and he held the office until he retired on March 2, 1979. He was a town meeting member from 1956 to 1985 and served on the Industrial Commission (1960-1975), the Apartment Study Committee and the Computer Study Committee (1971-1974), and on the Recreation Commission from 1971 to 1979, chairing it in 1979.

He kept serving after retirement. He was a commissioner of the Bowers Fund from 1964 until his death, reappointed by Town Meeting for five year terms in 1979 and 1989, and he sat on the Council on Aging from 1987, chairing it in 1991. He joined the Housing Authority in November 1988, was elected to it in 1989, and was its treasurer when he died on September 2, 1993. The authority recorded that it was "saddened to lose our Treasurer," and the town's 1993 report lists him among the officials it memorialized.

References

1. In Memoriam, 1993
2. Housing Authority Report, 1993
3. Howe High School Graduation, Class Roll, 1931
4. Town Officers, 1938
5. Town Officers, 1944 (School Committee chairman)
6. Annual Town Election, 1960 (Principal Assessor, unexpired term)
7. Board of Assessors Report, 1979 (retirement)
8. Annual Town Meeting, 1989 (Bowers Fund appointment)