Collier, Theodore

Theodore Collier (1874-1963), professor of history, was born in Montville, New Jersey, on July 9, 1874. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1894 and a master’s degree in 1897, both from Hamilton College. He studied at Union Theological Seminary from 1899 to 1902 and at the Universities of Berlin and Marburg in 1903-04. He earned his Ph.D. degree from Cornell in 1907. Along the way he acquired teaching experience in a number of secondary schools, Pritchett Institute in Missouri, Englewood School for Boys in New Jersey, and the Manual Training High School in Brooklyn. He was at Williams College from 1905 to 1911 as instructor and later assistant professor of history, and came to Brown in 1911 as associate professor. He was professor of European history from 1917 to 1923, professor of history and international relations from 1923 to 1944, and head of the Department of History from 1917 to 1939. He served with the Y.M.C.A overseas service in France in 1918-19. He also taught at summer sessions at Middlebury College, Clark University and Columbia University, and during the academic year 1924-25 was a visiting professor at Constantinople College. From the time of his arrival at Brown until 1918 his name was listed among the faculty as “Theodore Frelinghuysen Collier.” Then he dropped his middle name. In the early 1930s he traveled in Europe, observing political, economic, and social conditions, and frequently lectured on these topics. When he retired from Brown in 1944 at the age of 70, he said that what he would miss most was “the direct contact and association with young minds which is the great delight and reward of a teacher’s life.” It was not long before he was involved with students again. In 1945 he became a professor of business at Rollins College in Florida, remaining in that position until 1952. He died on April 9, 1963 in Tryon, North Carolina.