Donald Collins (right) and Fuquay Quarry Foreman Darin Hess talk shop as Anna Collins looks on.
www.martinmarietta.com | November/December 2019 The Conveyor 19
Myral Collins eventually fathered a
son, George Collins (Anna’s grandfather).
As a young man in need of work, George,
too, turned to Martin Marietta, starting
his career in 1961 as a maintenance man
and water truck driver. Through years
of hard work, he rose in the company,
earning promotions to foreman, general
foreman and plant manager, and obtaining
a two-year college degree along the
way. When he retired in 2003, he did so
as an area production manager.
“I don’t think you’ll ever meet a man
who loved to crush rock more,” Donald
says of his father. “Every night at the
dinner table, we would talk about his
day. He’d draw out a situation he encountered
in the quarry on a piece of paper
and he’d ask me, ‘Alright, how do you fix
this?’ That was our nightly interaction.”
Donald graduated high school and
attended Campbell University in North
Carolina, eventually becoming the first
in the family to complete a four-year
degree. Still, he couldn’t shake the stone
from his veins. In 2007, he signed on
with Martin Marietta as a quality control
technician.
“I’ll tell you, I owe this company a
lot,” he says. “It put food on my table. It
put diapers on my behind. It provided
everything we needed when I was
growing up and allowed my father the
opportunity to send me to school.”
By the time Anna was a high school
senior in 2016, Donald was an office
manager at Fuquay and Garner quarries.
He urged his daughter to apply for the
Martin Marietta Scholarship. She did and
was one of six students selected for the
honor that year.
Now a senior at North Carolina State
University, Anna has yet to map out
exactly what her career will look like.
Still, she says she’s thrilled to be working
with the company and plans to extend
her internship through the spring
semester.
“This job is really special for me,” she
says. “I know my family is proud and
I’ve grown up with Martin Marietta, so
I know this is a great place to work. I
just hope I can continue to develop my
professional skills and build strong
relationships. Everyone I’ve met here
has been so awesome.”
Recognizing his daughter’s achievements,
Donald says he’s confident Anna
has what it takes to succeed – whether
that success comes at Martin or elsewhere.
He’s reached this conclusion, he says,
because he’s taught his children the same
lesson he and generations of Collinses
before him have learned.
“Crushing rock is a lot like life because
it’s a challenge every day,” he says.
“Anybody can crush rock, but to do it
right – with the right quality – that’s
hard to do. You have to have dedication
and a good work ethic. You have to know
that whatever happens, you can deal
with it – that you can do it right and
succeed. I know Anna does it right.” ▼
Donald and Anna represent the third and fourth generations of the Collins family,
respectively, to work with Martin Marietta.
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