Brion Collins 

The month of June, 1993 was certainly a busy one for Brion--he survived “finals” at Northwestern University in Chicago, graduated, got married, moved to Green Bay and began a new job.  He appears to be happiest when he is busy, and he is a person with an enormous amount of energy who seems to have found numerous, productive ways of channeling that energy into various projects.  Brion got involved in the Knights of Columbus about two years ago when he was a member of Nativity Parish in Ashwaubenon, at the invitation of Roy Smith.  Prior to that, he had heard of the Knights but really didn’t know too much about them.  At the time, Brion says, he and his wife were looking for ways of getting more involved and “giving something back,” and the Knights seemed to be the right move for him.  In the relatively short time that he was a member of his first Council he was involved in more activities than he can remember, since he was always willing to help out when a couple hours of his time were needed.  He was the Booyah man, and also remembers being a part of various other projects such as the Tootsie Roll drive and pancake breakfasts.  It has been less than a year now since Brion and his family moved to the St. Bernard area and became involved in numerous activities again, including transferring to Council 10243.  Brion and his wife, Jennifer, both teach in the Religious Education program and he also serves as a group leader for Confirmation preparation and as a member of the Finance Committee.  Brion quickly became active in Council 10243 and was recently appointed Co-Director of Youth Activities for the Council, serving in that capacity with Mike Delvaux.  He and his wife also serve the Council as Pro-Life coordinators, and Jennifer is active in the Respect Life Committee at St. Bernard.  Brion is looking ahead to coordinating the Christmas Poster contest for Council 10243 and is quite excited about the possibilities that exist for Youth activities in the future. 

 

A native of Oconomowoc, Brion and his wife attended Northwestern University together and now both work as Chemical Engineers for Proctor & Gamble.  Brion’s position is that of Team Manager & Process Engineer; he says “I’m not sure what a Process Engineer is, but I know that a Team Manager is supposed to do.”  He supervises two crews of fifteen workers and works in a division which produces Posh Puffs (he wanted to be sure the ‘product plug’ got in).  He and his wife have a daughter, Elizabeth, who is about a year old now, and have been working on being sure that their many activities don’t interfere with important family time.  It is hard to imagine that anyone as active as Brion could have any “free” time, but he does, and for relaxation he is involved in a number of sports.  He participates as a player in several city leagues and may consider coaching at some point in the future.  He is also thinking about the possibility of advancing to the Fourth Degree at the next exemplification in April--an added bonus being that the exemplification is scheduled for his home town of Oconomowoc.  In the short time that Brion and his family have been a part of the larger Knights of Columbus family, and the even shorter time that they have been a part of Council 10243, he has demonstrated how a person as active and as busy as they are can prioritize things and find the time to give something back to the People of God.  We appreciate the reminder of what a life of service is really all about.

 

November 1995