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Obituary: Thomas “Jed” Jedediah Collins

December 4, 1974 – December 13, 2021

Born and raised in Steamboat Springs, CO, Jed lived his life to the fullest with a sense of adventure and love for the out-of-doors, his two daughters Mia and Keely, his family, and friends, He died of natural causes on December 13, 2021.

Growing up, Jed explored and fished Butcher Knife Canyon and all the local rivers and streams with his neighborhood friends including best friend Corby. Their nickname was “the creek rats”. He attended the Steamboat Springs school system and graduated in 1993.

His pursuit of the out-of-doors expanded throughout his life including river guiding out of Moab, Utah, kayaking and rafting major rivers in the West, Costa Rica, and the coast of Baja, Mexico. His backpacking took him throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, and the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico.

While attending Prescott College in Arizona, he spent a semester at a language school in Quepos, Costa Rica, where he was known by the locals for fishing off his surfboard. Jed’s true passion was fishing. He often said he was lucky that fishing was his passion and also his livelihood. He had an intuitive sense of locating fish, tying just the right fly, and landing them. His cousin once joked, “Jed could catch a fish in a mud puddle”.

He loved teaching people to fish, especially children. Saltwater fishing took him from Florida to Costa Rica, Bahamas, Belize, Los Roques, Venezuela, and most recently, to the Gulf of Mexico where he quickly became part of the Orange Beach, Alabama community.

In November 2021, off the Alabama coast, he hooked an 800 pound Marlin. Jed said the “setting her free was an emotional experience that he would never forget”.

Jed lived his life to the fullest, helping others. Jed volunteered with hurricane relief in Louisiana and local children’s fishing tournaments. He moved to Alabams to be close to his friend Malcolm and Malcolm’s family. They were his second family,

Jed was a loyal friend and had ties throughout the U.S. and beyond. He quickly developed a network of friends in Orange Beach, AL who loved his stories and adventures. Most of all, Jed loved his daughters, Mia and Keely. He always said that the happiest days of his life were the days that they were born. He was proud of the young women they are becoming. They shared special family vacations in Stone Harbor, NJ.

Jed is survived by his daughters Mia and Keely, his parents Chris and Tom, in addition to his longtime network of friends and extended family of Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Nieces and Nephews.

He is greatly missed.

A celebration of his life will be held in August. If you would like to do something in memory of Jed, help others whenever you can and help us all by planting a tree somewhere while thinking of Jed, with love in your heart.


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