Santa Ana Masonic Lodge Founder Joseph Collins Dies at 82

Joseph B. Collins, a former Masonic leader with Alzheimer’s disease whom fellow Masons rescued from a life of loneliness and neglect, died Monday of heart disease. He was 82.

More than four years ago, Collins was found by members of Santa Ana’s Prince Hall Masonic Lodge, living alone in a Compton house with an overgrown yard, a disconnected stove and no hot water.

A widower, Collins had no family left, was fast losing his memory and found it difficult to speak. But his friends felt a special loyalty to him. It was he who founded the Prince Hall lodge in 1957 to care for black brethren in need.

“He is the guy who got us together,” charter member Isaac Curtis said of Collins last year.

Although Collins was under the care of the Los Angeles County Office of the Public Guardian, the Masons felt he was not being adequately cared for. His care improved significantly after they complained, said Bill Mack, a Masonic Lodge officer. But members were further angered when Collins’ home was sold to pay for hospital and nursing home care.

They decided to take him under their wing. They successfully petitioned the courts for conservatorship, then moved Collins to the home of lodge member Melvin Shanks and his wife, Gloria, about a mile from the lodge.

He “lived a full life until his demise,” Mack wrote in a news release. Collins, a retired mail carrier, joined the Masonry in 1950 and, in 1955, became worshipful master of the lodge known as St. Johns No. 5 in Los Angeles. He later founded the Santa Ana lodge.

Services are scheduled for Saturday at the Inglewood Park Cemetery, at 720 East Florence Ave. in Inglewood. He will be buried beside his wife, Elsie, who died in 1978. He will receive full Masonic honors.