Death by typhoid fever had claimed the life of Mauney Douglas Collins’ father, Archibald Benjamin, on April 4, 1897.  Being the eldest boy in the family at age eleven (his older brother, Francis Arthur, had died as a one-year old), and his mother, Mary Louise Jackson Collins having seven children to raise, the young M. D. (as he was called) buckled down to responsibility and hard work.  Some would say these hardships made a man of him.  An examination of his subsequent life shows that, indeed, he did become a man—and an outstanding one at that.

He distinguished himself both in academics and in the debate society.  At the end of his first five-month term, his business acumen had been so frugal as to allow him to purchase at Berrong’s Dry Goods Store his first “store-bought” suit for $2.75.  His new suit was striking, with pin stripes.  He completed his ensemble with tie and a dress shirt with a celluloid collar.  Up to that time, his dress suits had been made by his mother from cloth woven at her home loom from wool gathered from their own sheep.

In the summer of 1902, Mauney Douglas Collins began his own teaching career back at Choestoe at Old Liberty School from which he had graduated seventh grade.  His uncle, Tom Jackson, was still the teacher there.  That summer, a record of over 100 pupils were enrolled.  Mr. Jackson needed help so he enlisted his nephew as the second teacher.

M D. Collins was seventeen when he began teaching at Old Liberty.  He kept this job for four years.  His beginning salary was $22.50 per month, $112.50 annually for a five-month term of school.  He taught in the summer when crops were “laid by,” and again in the winter months. 

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For four years, from July 1902 through 1906, young Mauney Douglas Collins taught at Old Liberty School in Union County for short five-month terms.  He often had as many as eighty students in seven grades.

Among his students were his own brothers, sisters and cousins, and persons who became notable in Georgia.  One student who later distinguished himself was William Henry Duckworth who served as Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court.

In 1906 M. D. Collins began what is probably a record for a teacher.  He taught three terms at three different schools in three counties in Georgia in the same fiscal year.  On July 23, 1906, he began a five-month term at Mountain Scene School in Towns County, finishing that contract just before Christmas.  At Sugar Hill School, Gwinnett County, he taught two months.  Then he moved on to Oakwood in Hall County to teach a five-month term.  By teaching on Saturdays as well as week-days, he was able to clock up what amounted to thirteen months (that is, 13 school months of twenty-days per month).  He was not dismissed from either school, but as procedures were then in one-teacher schools, he followed the terms set by the local patrons and the availability of the teacher.  During that phenomenal year, he turned twenty-one years old.

Running concurrently with his teaching career and his college education was his work as a Baptist pastor and evangelist.  He favored country churches and pastored several.  In 1924 and 1925, the churches he pastored held the statistical record in the Georgia Baptist Convention in number of baptisms.  He was pastor of Mount Olive Church near Fairburn.  In October, 1930, he became pastor of the New Hope Church in Old Campbell County.

Before the term “Church Planter” came into usage, he was starting new churches and helped to found thirteen churches.  His last pastorate was the Friendship Baptist Church in Fairburn where he was the minister for thirty-three years.  Upon his retirement from the church, he was made Pastor Emeritus.

His work in education was conducted concurrently with his pastoral duties.  He became known as “the marrying preacher.” Many of the young people he taught wanted him to perform their marriage ceremonies.  They were assured of a strong counseling session on the seriousness of marriage and family and then he “tied the knot” for them.

One of his favorite expressions in his tenure as superintendent was, “We deliver the goods, express charges prepaid.”  He had Georgia’s children and teachers at heart, with grass-roots knowledge of how education could work for the best good to the most people.  Some of his favorite expressions have often been quoted:

          “Georgia has sometimes missed a crop of cotton, but has never missed a crop of children.”

          “Education does not cost; it pays.”

          “Everybody is somebody.”

          “A teacher can only teach two things:  What he is and what he knows.”

In higher education, he was one of the founders of West Georgia College (now West Georgia State University) at Carrollton.  He served as a trustee of Mercer, Oglethorpe and Bob Jones Universities, each of which conferred upon him, a distinguished alumnus, honorary degrees.  He brought the Cave Spring School for the Deaf under the administration of the Georgia Department of Education.  He was a member of several professional organizations, and served on the Board of Directors of the National Education Association from 1934 through 1957.

He died March 9, 1967 at age 81.  He was interred at Westview Cemetery, Atlanta.

Dr. Mauney Douglas Collins exemplified in his life and service the spirit of individualism, self-discipline, hard work and ambition.  These are often characteristics of persons reared in adverse circumstances and determined to achieve.  He was mountain-bred and people-oriented.  He left a rich legacy from which Georgians are still benefiting today.  Indeed he was a noble mountain man, a person of vision, fidelity and attainment.