Randolph Collier Explained

Randolph Collier
State Senate:California
District:1st
Term:January 2, 1967 – November 30, 1976
Predecessor:Stanley Arnold
Successor:Ray E. Johnson
State Senate2:California
District2:2nd
Term2:January 2, 1939 – January 2, 1967
Predecessor2:Henry M. McGuinness
Successor2:Fred W. Marler Jr.
Birth Date:26 July 1902
Birth Place:Etna, California, U.S.
Death Place:Sacramento, California, U.S.
Party:Democratic (1959–1983)
Republican (before 1959)
Spouse:
Barbara Ferris Hamoui
Children:7
Alma Mater:University of California, Berkeley

Randolph Collier (July 26, 1902 – August 2, 1983) was a member of the California State Senate. He was Senator from California's 2nd State Senatorial district from 1939 to 1967, and from the First District from 1967 to 1976.[1] Initially a member of the Republican Party, he moved to the Democratic Party in 1959.[2] [3]

Collier served as chairman of the California Senate Transportation Committee and was the sponsor and co-author of the Collier–Burns Highway Act of 1947, which laid the groundwork for the California Freeway and Expressway System. He was chairman of the Senate Interim Committee on Highways, Streets and Bridges. Collier was an opponent of rapid transit.[4] A rest stop in Siskiyou County, where he lived nearly all of his life, is named after him,[5] as is a tunnel on the Redwood Highway, U.S. Route 199.

In 1976, Collier was defeated for re-election by former state Assemblyman Ray E. Johnson and moved to Sacramento, where he spent the remainder of his life until dying of chronic pulmonary obstruction at the age of 81.[6]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Join California - Randolph Collier. joincalifornia.com.
  2. California Blue Book, 1963
  3. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/03/obituaries/randolph-collier-father-of-coast-freeways.html New York Times - Obituary of Randolph Collier
  4. http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf267n99qg/ Inventory of the Randolph Collier Papers, bulk 1945-1955
  5. http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/maint/ra/ra29.htm California Rest Stops
  6. News: Randolph Collier, 'Father' of Coast Freeways. The New York Times. 3 August 1983. Turner. Wallace.