Jeffrey Townes Collins, M.D., father to three, grandfather to eight, and dear neighbor and friend to many, passed away in his own bed at home in Port Townsend, Washington on February 26, 2024. With his children and other loved ones physically or virtually by his side, Jeff was ready to go after a long struggle against illness. Jeff now rests peacefully in a mountain meadow, next to his wife, Kate O’Donnell, who he survived by just over ten years.
Jeff built and led a marvelous life. He cared deeply about helping others, our beautiful planet and its creatures, human decency, and compassion for fellow human beings. He once said,
"I fully believe we are in an interconnected universe and that we thrive most abundantly when we strive to cooperate."
Jeff’s passion and life’s work was healing through psychiatry, which he practiced for almost 50 years, retiring in 2023. Jeff helped to ease the mental suffering of many over the years and once risked his own career to protect vulnerable patients from abuse in a state mental institution. Some called him a “hero,” but Jeff never mentioned his actions.
How did Jeff become Jeff? He actually started out as Geoff Schaden, born in 1940 in Oklahoma City to Virginia Hale and Herman Schaden, Jr. Herman soon divorced Virginia, but she remarried to a kindly man, Florent Phillips, who died tragically from a heart condition when Jeff was a mere tot of five. Jeff was later adopted by his second step father Robert Collins.
Despite the multiple losses he experienced in early childhood, Jeff somehow thrived. He used his keen intellect to become a brilliant student. Jeff earned both his B.A. and M.D. from the University of Oklahoma, cementing him as lifelong Boomer! Sooner!
Jeff served in the Indian Health Service in 1969 and completed his residency in Psychiatry at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in 1975. During that time, he was married to his first wife, Anna Ingmarie McElvain, née Wieberg, and they had their three children, Anne-Marie, Sven, and Pehr. Ingmarie and Jeff divorced in the early 1990s and Jeff married Kate several years later. In the nearly fifty years after Jeff completed his psychiatry training, he helped to heal others, both in private and public practice, in various places around the country. And through his many travels and experiences, Jeff became devoted to learning and practicing the art of nonviolent communication—as he said, the cornerstone for cooperation that engenders true progress.
Jeff was quite unassuming and didn’t take himself too seriously. He was far more curious about what was on your mind. Or about what was happening with the planet, with politics, or what was going on right outside in his garden, where eagles, jays, hummingbirds, deer, otters, and other magnificent creatures often paid a visit or passed by. He never ceased to be awestruck by the beauty of nature and fellow people.
If you knew Jeff, you also know that he loved music, especially live music, and enjoying it with others. But did you know he once saw Bruce Springsteen in the early 1970s at an intimate small venue? What, What!!! And Jeff said that wasn’t even the best music he saw at that venue. Jeff followed his passion for music throughout his life, and you would often see him at blues or folk shows in Port Townsend, on the Blues Cruise, or dancing at the Upstage, performing his signature shoulder boogie. Jeff thrived on the energy of live music and truly danced like no one was watching. Anne-Marie’s daughter Isabel still laughs about late-night dancing with him in Puerto Vallarta last March and his desire to keep up with them.
Jeff was strikingly handsome, but what was most beautiful was his charming, infectious chuckle, his bright smile, his wild hair, and his overarching kindness. There was no one like him.
Though you will no longer see Jeff doggedly trekking up and down the hill by his house to build his strength battling the dreaded illness, or at the local live music venues or festivals, you can take heart. Jeff’s spirt lives on with all of those fortunate enough to have known him. Don’t be surprised if you continue to see him in our interconnected universe – in his children, grandchildren, and those he touched, as well as in the beasts and fowl that grace this earth.
Sweet Jeff has our love and we have his.
Jeff will be sorely missed by Anne-Marie and her son Alec (who fondly recalls long-boarding the hills of PT, Pac NW college tours, and an engaging NYC dinner with Jeff) and daughter Isabel; Sven, his wife Shannon, and their two daughters, Dayne and Weston; Pehr, his wife Megan, and their son Ethan, and three daughters, Emma, Inga, and Saga; along with his many friends and those he touched in his 83 years.
If you are considering a donation in Jeff’s honor, he was a frequent supporter of the ASPCA, the Defenders of Wildlife, the Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club, Apopo Hero Rats, and Amnesty International.
Also, Jeff would encourage you to vote in the all- important 2024 elections! As Jeff often said, “This, too, shall pass.”
