Ron Clarence Collins, 86, of Harlan, Ind., died May 2, 2026. He was born July 20, 1939, in Gettysburg, Pa., to E.C. (Clarence) and Edith Blough Collins. Most of his youth was spent in Harrisonburg, Va. After high school, in lieu of military service, he spent several years in voluntary service in Puerto Rico as a radio tech and in youth work. He graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a major in physics. While in Puerto Rico he married Betty Lou Delegrange. He fell in love with the Hispanic people and spent the rest of his life serving in their community. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania and then was called to pastor a Puerto Rican church plant in South Bronx. 

He obtained his master of divinity degree at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and a Ph.D. from McCormick Seminary in Chicago. He pastored Hispanic congregations in the Bronx, Chicago, Goshen and New Mexico. He taught in Central America and Boliva and at Goshen College for 10 years in theology, Spanish, math and physics. He was then called by the Mennonite Church to return to Puerto Rico to reopen the Bible institute. Although he never realized it, he was instrumental in renewing the Puerto Rican church. 

He loved Jesus, Betty Lou and ham radios; he was an avid ham radio builder, operator and guru. He and Betty Lou moved to Harlan in 2019. He was a member of Fairhaven Mennonite Church in Fort Wayne, Ind. 

He is survived by his wife of 65 years and their three children, Deb, Linda and Steve; 15 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren.