From There to Here: From a Childhood in Wales to a Retirement in America - In Verse Tapa blanda - 2014

BOB COLLINS was born in 1936 in Dolgellau, the county town of the old county of Meirionydd, now a part of Gwynedd, in North Wales. He was reared near Tyn-y-Groes Hotel close to the village of Ganllwyd, about four and a half miles to the north of Dolgellau on the Blaenau Ffestiniog road (A470). His playground during his childhood was the countryside around him-the woods, the open fields, the River Mawddach. Much of his early childhood coincided with World War II, during which, as Wonderboy, he stood prepared to defend, single-handedly, his part of North Wales against the enemy. His early education was at the Ganllwyd Village School and at Dolgellau Grammar School for Boys (later to become the coeducational Ysgol Y Gader). Although fluent in Welsh as a child, the English language has taken over as his first language and he now speaks Welsh only when his back is to the wall (preferably a dry stone wall surrounding a field somewhere in Wales). After leaving school, he lived near Oswestry, in Manchester, and in Bridgwater, Somerset, his occupation during most of those times being in the field of mechanical and plant engineering. From Bridgwater, he emigrated to Vancouver in Western Canada, where he stayed for a year before moving to Denver, Colorado in the U.S.A. He has remained in Colorado ever since, except for a four year period in Clifton, New Jersey (close to New York City). At various times, he has been involved in engineering, software design and implementation, writing, teaching, and software sales and marketing. Bob Collins has a son, Dr. Stephen Collins, a daughter-in-law Catherine, and a granddaughter Elise, who live nearby in Colorado. His heart (complete with bypasses) is ever in the Mawddach valley.