Lester at our staff Halloween party
Back in our July 2016 E-news, we introduced you to our most recent hire, Lester Collins, Jr.: “Lester possesses an array of skills earned as a clinician, chaplain, social science professor, and program manager of federal and state programs. He is a doctoral candidate at The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) and helped conduct a 2012 UTA-DHA-MDHA collaborative study on homelessness. Simply put, the man breathes research, results and data! That said, Lester always keeps in mind, ‘that any numbers I work with and policies and programs I work on, represent and affect real, living and breathing people, who deserve communities that are responsive to their needs.‘”
These were no empty words. Lester lived by them. He would go on to be with us for about two years, making an indispensable contribution to the welfare of our homeless friends, and leaving an indelible mark on each of us at MDHA. He was kind and thoughtful, to a fault. The man’s vocabulary lacked the word no, and none of us ever heard him raise his voice. (I once confirmed with his daughter that it was the same at home.) He always went above and beyond.
Lester was a learner in the truest sense of the word, setting an example for all of us in that he never stopped learning. He completed his PhD. while he was with us and was quickly snatched up by Alabama A&M University, an HBCU, where he began teaching in September of last year.
Lester had a tremendously bright future ahead of him in academia. Unfortunately, shortly after he began teaching at Alabama A&M, he was diagnosed with cancer. He fought quite valiantly, but last Friday he passed away, just one day shy of his and his dear wife Anita’s 22nd wedding anniversary.
Lester is the kind of guy you never forget, and I don’t think any of us at MDHA ever will. In my mind’s eye I imagine asking him, what we could do in his memory. He would likely say that since his income was his family’s only source of funds, he would ask us to make a monetary contribution to his family, in his memory. He was a very practical man, after all. You can do that very easily. Just download the Cash App on to your smart phone/device and enter $paylesmor in the field where it asks you who you want to send the money to. Thank you, in advance, and may Lester’s memory serve as a blessing to Anita, his two children, and all who knew him.
