Collins, 20, remembered for passion

UNC sophomore Thomas James Collins committed suicide last month outside his fraternity house during finals week.

Collins was found dead at 7:33 p.m. Dec. 15 in a car outside the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house on Finley Golf Course Road, Chapel Hill police reports state.

He battled with depression for many years, his parents said.

"He was extremely sensitive, which made all the issues in his life more difficult," his father, Tom Collins, said. "He felt more deeply, which has a good perspective but also a bad perspective."

His parents said his depression helped him connect with others.

"I think because of his depression and melancholy, he always seemed to be able to recognize pain in other people, and he searched them out and helped them," his mother, Jenny Collins, said.

His friends agreed. "He was the kind of person you always went to when you had a problem," said Jeff Schroeder, T.J. Collins' freshman-year roommate and his high school and middle school classmate.

The 20-year-old English major left behind a legacy rich with art and passion, friends and family members said.

"T.J. was very much interested in literature and poetry," his father said. "He had a real love for the arts."

This is not the first time in recent memory that the UNC campus has been shaken by a suicide - especially during finals week.

Two students committed suicide during spring exams in 2004, and four students committed suicide in the 2002-03 school year.

Born in Raleigh, T.J. Collins graduated from Leesville Road High School in 2004, where he played the trombone and was a member of the varsity basketball team.

Following in his father's and his two uncles' footsteps, T.J. Collins enrolled at UNC, where he continued to pursue his interests in English and the arts.

"The library made his eyes light up," Tom Collins said. "When he came home after his first visit to UNC he said there were more books on one floor of the library than in the whole Wake County library.

"He loved reading. - He was very bright."

T.J. Collins pledged Pi Kappa Phi fraternity last spring and became the house manager in the fall - the only sophomore in the fraternity who held an executive position at the time.

"Everything he got involved in, he really got serious about, and he really felt for it," said sophomore Evan Roche, T.J. Collins' roommate last semester at Pi Kappa Phi.

His fellow fraternity members said they would remember him as a dependable, thoughtful friend.

"T.J. was very caring, and he was kind of deep," Roche said.

"I don't know many people that think the way he thought. He wrote poetry, and he was really philosophical."

A memorial service was held for T.J. Collins on Sunday, Dec. 18, at Mitchell Funeral Homes in Raleigh.

"It was packed," Tom Collins said. "It was standing room only."

T.J. Collins is survived by his parents and half brother Ross Cohen, 24.

 

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.