Charles Jackson "Jack" Collum

Charles Jackson “Jack” Collum passed away peacefully in his sleep at home at the age of 102. He was born on July 30, 1920, in Lewis, Louisiana to Roy and Jewel Collum. Jack met his wife Nelwyn when they were 14 and 15 at the First Presbyterian Church and 6 years later in 1941, he married his soulmate. They were blissfully happy for the next 75 years.

Jack graduated from Kilgore High School, Kilgore College, and earned a BA in Agriculture and Masters in Education from Sam Houston State University. When World II broke out he was a superintendent at the first US rubber plant in Port Neches. As the war proceeded, he felt he needed to serve so he joined the Army Air Corps as a pilot cadet. After the war ended, he became a professor at Sam Houston. When the men left for the Korean War he moved to Palestine High School. In 1963 he became Dean of the Technical Vocational Department at Lee College in Baytown where he helped to change many lives. His motto was “If you don’t care who gets the credit you can accomplish much”. Jack was instrumental in putting college courses in the Texas Prison System, training for the plants along the Houston Ship Channel and many more. He retired in 1985. He believed and professed “Education can change your life.”

Jack is preceded in death by his father and mother, Roy and Jewel Collum, 2 brothers Thomas and Neal Collum, his wife of 75 years Nelwyn Dodson Collum and a son Chad Collum.

Jack is survived by a son Larry Collum and his wife Judy of Golden, Colorado, a daughter Elaine Collum Hall and her husband Jerry Hall of Kilgore, 2 granddaughters and their husbands - Lisa and J. P. Richardson of Tatum and Leigh Ann and Matt Richardson of The Colony and 5 great-grandchildren Landon, Emma, Jackson, Ella, and Elin Richardson and friend and caregiver Paula Dennis.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, December 31, 2022, at 10:00 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Kilgore. Burial will follow at the Kilgore Cemetery. The family will receive friends at Rader Funeral Home in Kilgore on Friday, December 30, 2022, from 5:00 p.m. until 6:30 p.m.

Memorial contributions may be made to First Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 1216, Kilgore, Texas.