Service: 11 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 14, Ralph J. Wittich-Riley-Freers Funeral Home. Visitation: 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13, funeral home.

MUSCATINE, Iowa – Dean “Deaner” Collins, 81, of Letts, died Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009, at the Clarissa C. Cook Hospice House.

The Rev. Lloyd Mansfield of the Church of Christ will officiate. 

Casketbearers will be William Collins, Ronald Collins, Gary Collins, Steve Collins, Scott Collins and Travis Christy.  Honorary bearers will be Alton Griffin, Bill Palmer, Jack Carter, Bill Clements Sr., Don Schier, Dick Westbrook, Jim Thompson, Don Lett and Claudia Putnam. 

Burial will be at Letts Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to the Dean Collins Memorial Fund. 

Online condolences may be left at www.wittichfuneralhome.com.

Mr.  Collins was born June 29, 1928, in Letts, the son of W. Fay and Pearl Vivian Rhyner Collins. 

He was a graduate of Letts High School class of 1946, and was on the baseball team that won the 1946 state championship.

His first marriage was to Carol JoAnn Harbison on July 18, 1950.  She preceded him in death on July 3, 1954.  He then married Dolores Ann Lenhart Aug. 19, 1955, in Muscatine.

He drove school bus for Louisa-Muscatine Schools for 33 years, he farmed for 26 years, he worked as a security guard at the Ordinance Plant in West Burlington and also worked as grounds supervisor at Monsanto for 20 years, retiring in 1993.

He was a past member of the Letts United Methodist Church and is current member Church of Christ in Muscatine, a 50- year member of the Masonic Lodge; he was a member of the Letts Eastern Star, and the KAABA Temple Shrine. 

He organized the first little league program in Letts and had been involved with youth programs since 1944. 

In the early 1960s, he was part of the group that established rural fire protection taxation in Cedar, 76, and Muscatine townships.  He was a charter member of the Iowa State Fire Service and served as the Fire Chief at Letts for eight years.  He was a registered member of the Boy Scouts of America for 66 years receiving the distinguished Silver Beaver Award.  He was a member of the Order of the Arrow/Silver Tomahawk Lodge 80 and served as the senior medicine man from 1985 to the present.  He was anxiously awaiting the arrival of three great-grandchildren.

Those left to honor his memory include his wife, Dolores Collins of Letts; a daughter, Deena Jo Collins Christy of Letts; five sons, William “Bill” Collins of Davenport, Ronald “Ron” Dean Collins and wife, Marie, of Letts, Gary Lee Collins and wife, Robin, of Davenport, Steven Allen Collins of Letts, and Scott Richard Collins and wife, Cynthia, of Grandview; six grandchildren, Travis Christy, Summer Allchin, Jennifer Massey, Rachael Doebel, Kelli Collins, and Ebony Sykes; and seven great-grandchildren, Reese Christy, Aidan Christy, Bryan Lenz, Haylee Lenz, Ethan Massey, Marty Massey, and Michael Sykes.

He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, John; three sisters, Arlene, Marian, and Phyllis; a grandson, Greg Collins; and a son-in-law, David Christy.