Collier Laird

Collier Laird
December 8, 1924 - July 20, 2019
Collier Laird, beloved father and grandfather, passed away peacefully on July 20, 2019, at the Bridgeway Hospice unit at Emory University Hospital. A true Southern Gentleman to the end, Collier was born in Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia on December 8, 1924. He was the middle child to Henry Maney Collier Laird and Alice Ethel McLean. They resided in Buckhead until Collier was around 12 years old, when they moved to Jacksonville, Florida. Collier was something of a cut-up, and according to his own report, he stayed in trouble much of the time. He enlisted in the United States Army, and was stationed in the Pacific Theater for most of World War II, working on boats. When he returned from the war, he remembered asking his mother to make his favorite dish – corn chowder. Collier’s older sister Alyce and his younger brother Tom predeceased him.
Collier completed some college, but admitted to truly hating school. He always regretted that he didn’t finish. After the war he found work at the Timuquana Country Club where he met his beloved Virginia Hichborn Schmidt. They married and enjoyed a wonderful life for 47 years. Collier worked for Chevron as an accounting manager for the entirety of his career. They raised two sons, David Collier Laird and Paul Frederick Laird, raising them in Jacksonville until Collier was transferred to Louisville, Kentucky in 1971. After building a new life in Louisville, Collier and Virginia were transferred again, this time to the East Bay area of California, settling in Martinez. Virginia passed away in 1997. Collier later remarried to Delores Burchett of Lincoln, California, who survives him.
Collier and both David and Paul are Eagle Scouts. For the past two years Collier lived with David and his wife Susan in Atlanta, Georgia. After a massive stroke, he was in assisted living in Arbor Terrace, Decatur, Georgia, where his caregivers were stellar. David and Susan visited him several times each week. He celebrated his 94th birthday sharing champagne and hors d’oeuvres and an enormous cake with his fellow residents.
Collier will be deeply missed by his family and lifelong friends. The list of people who loved him is long. Sons David and his wife Susan, Paul and his wife Leigh and their children Alexandria (Zanny), Collier Arthur (Cal), and Revere. Collier’s extended family includes new but loving relationships with David and Susan’s family, Eleanor (Nell) and Jonathan Seufert and their children Odette and Sevastian of Atlanta; Suzanne (Zan) and Zack Lockhart of Maine. Others who will miss him include Delores’ daughter Noel Templeton and her partner Gordon Halfpap. His nephews Andy and Alec Schmidt were very important to him. Collier outlived most of his close friends, and was grateful to always stay in touch with Mary and Bill Stormes and Kathleen Clark.
A memorial service will be held at graveside at Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta, Georgia, at a later date. His ashes will be inurned at the Laird family plot. Should you wish to make a gift in memory of Collier, please consider contributions to Historic Oakland Foundation. Information may be found at https://oaklandcemetery.com/donate/. Mark your contribution “in memory of Collier Laird.”