I have scenes in novels inspired by him and what he taught. Fuck, i have actual entire novels inspired by him and what he taught. My gold standard for grammar is ‘something Collins would approve of’. I always knew, from the first novel i ever wrote (a sci-fi/fantasy mashup written during National Novel Writing Month in the same semester in which i was taking Collins’ ‘Lit of Evil’ class), if i ever started actually publishing novels, the first one would be ‘dedicated to’ or ‘in memory of’ Collins, depending on whether the already-quite-old teacher was still alive at the time.

I guess i have my answer to which it will be now.

Tangentially related, but if i ever have an ancestor-focused altar, some remembrance of him is going on it. He may not be of my blood but he affected my life in ways i will never (nor do i have any desire to) shake off, and heaven knows he did more to ensure my survival through high school than my emotionally abusive grandparents did.