By HDN Staff
ROCKY BOY Michael David Collins, 34, died Monday, Sept. 3, 2001, from injuries he sustained in a vehicle accident.
A wake service began Tuesday. Funeral services will be 10 a.m. Thursday at the Rocky Boy Catholic Church with Sister Margaret Mary, Louis
and Allen Gardipee, Russell and Douglas Standing Rock officiating with Traditional Native American Ceremony. Burial will be in Rocky Boy Cemetery.
Collins was born Sept. 11, 1966, in San Bernadino, Calif., to David Gregory and Lorraine (Gardipee) Collins. He was raised in Hayward, Calif., and attended schools in California. He moved to Rocky Boy in 1979 because he was proud of his Indian heritage and to be with his family and in the mountains.
He married Carol Gardipee in 1987 at Rocky Boy.
Collins attended the Chicago Indian Iron Works School and graduated with his industrial welding certificate in 1997. He attended Stone Child College in Rocky Boy and received an award for having the highest grade point average. He was on the Indian firefighting HotShot crew in Colorado, Wyoming and Montana for more than seven years.
His hobbies and interests included traveling and taking his nieces and nephews on trips. He was an active member of the Native American Church in Rocky Boy.
Collins was preceded in death by his father, David Gregory Collins, in 1983; wife, Carol Collins, in 1991.
Survivors include his mother, Lorraine Gardipee of Helena; maternal grandparents, George and Jolene Gardipee of Rocky Boy; paternal grandmother, Marian Collins of Florida; sisters, Misty Lowney of Butte and Cheryl Collins of California; brothers, Brian Collins of California and Lug, Shawn, Mike and Randy, all of Rocky Boy; numerous nieces and nephews.
Services and arrangments are under the direction of the Holland and Bonine Funeral Home.
