C. Cortez Collins, 74; his voice, love brought power to poems

When C. Cortez Collins delivered a dramatic reading of James Weldon Johnson's poem "The Creation," his booming baritone shook the rafters and brought audiences to their feet.

"And God stepped out on space,

And he looked around and said:

I'm lonely --

I'll make me a world."

The words reverberated.

"He didn't just say it, he preached it," Samuel Turner of Newton said yesterday of Mr. Collins, a minister and elementary school teacher who introduced many Greater Bostonians to African-American poetry.

Mr. Collins, 74, died earlier this month in the West Palm Beach, Fla., house he had inherited from his mother. His remains were discovered Oct. 14, but it is believed he died about two weeks earlier.

For more than 25 years Mr. Collins delivered dramatic presentations of poetry by black American writers at local colleges and community centers.

"He had been a drama major in college and he delivered the poems with all the drama of those old black preachers," said Turner. "People were in awe."

A tall man who was impeccably groomed, "he always looked like he just stepped out of the pages of GQ magazine," said Turner.

Mr. Collins graduated from Morris Brown College in Atlanta, and earned a master's degree in divinity at Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio.

In the early 1960s he was interim minister at Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton and accompanied the Revs. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy on civil rights marches.

In 1966 he became an elementary teacher in the Hingham public schools, where he taught for 25 years.

"He thought the best way to introduce black culture and diversity to a larger audience was in the schools," said David LeCam of Weymouth, who taught with Mr. Collins.

During a sabbatical from the Hingham schools in 1973 and 1974, Mr. Collins earned a second master's degree, in sacred theology, at Boston University.

He also took classes in the Afro-American Studies program at Harvard University.

Whenever he got the chance he introduced the residents of suburbia to the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance.

An opera aficionado, Mr. Collins often took the train from Boston to New York City to catch matinee performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Students, parents, and friends often accompanied him and he would lead workshops on the productions on the train rides.

"I went with him to see Wagner's Ring Cycle," said Turner. "I came away with a complete understanding of the opera."

Mr. Collins also enjoyed taking cruises. After a voyage to Europe on the Queen Elizabeth II, his friends belittled the vessel as a glorified troop ship because of its service during the Falklands War.

"He responded with a few well-aimed barbs," said LeCam.

"He had a somewhat mercurial disposition -- when the clouds of temper gathered above furrowed brow, he really let you know it," LeCam said. "But it was worth putting up with the occasional outburst. He really was quite a guy."

Mr. Collins leaves no immediate survivors.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. in Myrtle Baptist Church in Newton.