ROCKLAND — A longtime legislator and former Maine Supreme Court justice has died. Samuel Collins Jr. was 88.
He was the uncle of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, who calls him a “person of such integrity and intelligence that people naturally turned to him for advice and leadership.”
Attorney Stephen Hanscom worked with Samuel Collins Jr. for years. He says Collins died Thursday at his home in Rockland. He hasn’t given a cause of death.
Collins was a Caribou native. He graduated from the University of Maine at Orono and Harvard Law School before practicing law in Rockland. He was appointed Maine Supreme Judicial Court justice in 1988 and served until his retirement in 1994.
Collins served five terms in the state Senate. He was majority leader for the 1981-82 session and was a minority leader the following session
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