Robert J. Collier

Robert Joseph Collier (June 17, 1876 – November 9, 1918) was the son of Peter Fenelon Collier, and a principal in the publishing company P. F. Collier & Son. Upon his father's death, he became head of the company, and for a time was editor of Collier's Weekly. He was president of the Aero Club of America.

He was born in New York City on June 17, 1876 to Katherine Louise Collier (nee Dunue) and Peter Fenelon Collier.

He attended St. Francis College and then transferred to Georgetown University and graduated in 1894, winning the Merrick Medal from the Philodemic Society that same year. He received the degree of A. B. from Georgetown University. He then spent two years at Harvard University and Oxford University.

He married Sara Steward Van Alen (1881-1963), a daughter of James John Van Alen and Emily Astor as well as a granddaughter of William Backhouse Astor, Jr. and Caroline Webster Schermerhorn. They married on 26 July 1902 in Newport, Rhode Island. They had no children. Prior to his marriage he dated the showgirl Evelyn Nesbit, amongst others.

Editor and publisher of the Collier's Weekly, he was known to have converted the illustrations in the publication from black and white ink to color

Collier, was an aviation enthusiast. A friend of Orville Wright and a director of the Wright Company, purchased a Wright Model B aircraft in 1911 and loaned it to the United States Army, which assigned it to Lieutenant Benjamin Foulois. Foulois and civilian Wright Company pilot Phil Parmalee used this aircraft to fly along the Rio Grande border of Mexico and the United States in one of the first scouting duties by the U.S. Army using an airplane. Foulois and Parmalee later crashed the airplane into the Rio Grande but escaped from drowning. Having that plane repaired, he then took it to fly Jimmy Hare to film the construction of the Panama Canal by flying over the construction site in the same Wright Biplane, B type. He commissioned a hydro-aeroplane plane to be constructed in 1913 to attempt to cross the Atlantic.

Collier had many influential friends of the day to which he was social. An enthusiast of Polo, he encountered many injuries. In 1899, he was playing Polo with George Jay Gould I for the Lakewood Team when he fell and broke his collarbone. In 1906 he was playing against Harry Payne Whitney when he took a mallet strike to his eye and tore his eye socket.

In 1911 he commissioned the Collier Trophy devoted to achievements in aviation.

In 1914 he developed uremic poisoning from kidney failure at his summer home in Raquette Lake, New York.

Located in Wickatunk, New Jersey Mr. Collier constructed his country estate. He was an enthusiastic pilot and used the estate partly as a landing strip to fly his plane. In addition to the airplane, the estate had extensive horse stables and fox hunting hounds.

He died of a heart attack at his dinner table, on November 8, 1918 a few hours after arriving home from France. He was in France for work related to the Knights of Columbus and his publishing empire. He was apparently reporting on the war and had press credentials. However, shortly before his return to New York, General Pershing had personally cancelled his press credentials and ordered him home. His estate was valued at just $2,194. His funeral was held in the Church of St. Jean Baptiste on Lexington Ave. Orville Wright, Condé Montrose Nast, Francis P Garvan, Finley Peter Dunne and Joseph Kennedy were some of his pallbearers at his funeral. He made no provision in his will for his wife, however the beneficiaries of the will provided a renunciation of their part of the will so his wife could receive some funds.

In his will he made three friends, Peter Finley Dunne, Harry Payne Whitney, and Francis Patrick Garvan, the residuary legatees of his estate and, thus, his publishing company. Collier evidently believed that his wife had sufficient money of her own. In fact, she did not and would receive only a few thousand dollar from her husband's will. Dunne, Whitney, and Garvan then renounced the bequest so that Mrs. Collier could benefit fully. In addition to selling the troubled publishing company, his wife donated their home in the Wickatunk section of Marlboro Township, New Jersey to the Sisters of the Good Shepherd who made it a home for troubled young women. This was later opened up to children of all ages and what has become known as Collier High School.

He was also largely responsible for starting the Lincoln Farm Association which raised money to purchase the Lincoln birthplace estate which was then donated and turned into a National Park.

He was portrayed by Phillip Reed in the 1955 film on Evelyn Nesbit, The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing.

During World War II, a Liberty Ship was named in honor of Robert J Collier. Following the war, it was ordered to Belgium with a load of coal but was lost when it ran aground in the Scheldt Estuary.