Robert Collett

Medina, WA

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I had planned to attend the 50^th reunion of our class, but now it looks like plans will have to change. I’m in the recovery stage of some recent surgery, and while all is progressing nicely towards full recovery, a five hour plane ride seems unwise. Since I also missed the 45th, I am particularly disappointed to have to pass once again. As a consolation, I’ll do a bit of updating to this bio, although not a lot has changed since the last one.

After graduating from Pampa High, I first went to Houston for four years of education at Rice. Then, I moved on to North Carolina for a Master’s degree at Duke. After deciding that I wanted to become an actuary, I took an entry-level actuarial job at an insurance company in Galveston, partly in order to be able to return to Texas. 

Once back in Texas, I met (through Ralph Depee and his wife-to-be Jeanne Sills, who in turn had been introduced by Gene Shirley), courted and married Sue Healy of Houston in 1965. Within a few weeks of our marriage, we packed up our belongings and headed to Philadelphia to start a new job with a consulting actuarial firm, Milliman & Robertson. We enjoyed four years in Philadelphia, but ultimately lobbied successfully for the chance to open a new office for the firm in Houston. As a consequence, in 1970, we moved back to Texas, living in Houston for 21 years, with my practice focused mainly on Dallas, Houston, Mexico and the Southeastern U.S. 

In the early 1990s I was elected CEO of the firm. After dragging our feet for a year and a half, Sue and I finally decided to move to Seattle, where the firm’s headquarters are located. It turned out to be a great move! We love Seattle; it really does not rain all the time. In fact, it is usually bone dry from July until well into October. [OK, so what if it does rain the rest of the year.] When it is sunny, there may be no place on earth more scenic than the Pacific Northwest. Come visit us, and see for yourself. 

Now I am fully retired, and we continue to live in Seattle. We do, however, get away for a part of the winter each year, currently to a condo near San Diego. 

Sue and I have been richly blessed in our life together. My work allowed us travel to all 50 states and over 40 countries, and it let us make friends in most of those countries with whom we continue to stay in touch. We have a terrific daughter who is a pediatric rheumatologist. After five years in New York City, her husband and she relocated to rural Pennsylvania, and we enjoy our visits there. They have given us two most excellent grandsons, and we try to see them every two or three months. 

Our major leisure time activities include travel and being with our daughter, son-in-law and grandsons whenever possible. We like gardening, hiking, boating and other outdoor activities in the Seattle area. Music is a big part of our lives, too. We spend time volunteering with the Seattle Symphony, and even more time enjoying live performances of music from the renaissance period up through the twentieth century

I am grateful to Pampa High School and its faculty for the solid educational foundation provided to me. My only significant ongoing complaint in my life is that I wish Texas and Washington State were a bit closer together. Then, I could see family and Texas friends more easily and more often. Assuming that I can’t be at our 50th reunion, I hope that there will be another one soon and that I can see all of you on that occasion.