Eugene L. Collier; Prominent Businessman in South-Central

Eugene L. Collier, 83, one of the first white businessmen in South-Central Los Angeles to employ its black residents. After working at a soda fountain and delivering newspapers during the Depression, Collier founded a string of malt shops and an ice cream manufacturing plant on Central Avenue at a time when most white-owned businesses were retrenching or relocating. His Par-Mel Ice Cream Co. at 54th Street and Central once had 75 employees and an annual payroll of $200,000 in an era of limited incomes and jobs. In 1969, Collier was honored by Los Angeles County for his contributions to the area. Leon H. Washington Jr., publisher of the Los Angeles Sentinel, wrote glowingly of Collier and his then-38 years of community service and his stated policy to employ those who live and shop in the neighborhood. In Los Alamitos on Feb. 10 of heart disease.