ROCKLAND — Samuel Collins Jr., a longtime legislator and former Maine supreme court justice, has died. He was 88. Attorney Stephen Hanscom, who worked with Collins for a number of years, said Collins died Thursday at his home in Rockland.

A Caribou native, Collins graduated from the University of Maine at Orono and Harvard law school before practicing law in Rockland. He was appointed Maine Supreme Judicial Court justice in 1988 and served until his retirement in 1994.

Collins served five terms in the state Senate, serving as majority leader for the 1981-82 session and a minority leader the following session.

He was the uncle of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who called him a “person of such integrity and intelligence that people naturally turned to him for advice and leadership.”


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.