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January 2024
NEWFOUNDLAKELIFE.COM
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Community
CAMPS
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to Hebron in 1999. Having al- ways been a history buff, Col- lins quickly became intrigued by the history of Newfound and promptly got to work on the re- search. With an impressive his- tory as an author, Collins has written over thirty history, gene- alogy, and literary books. One of his notable works includes, A History of Newfound Lake, a book many Newfound residents are familiar with! Ron is also a recognized poet. His collected work has been published under the title Found There. He has also edited four anthologies of Newfound Lake area poetry and prose: Shadows of Water, Hills of Light, Valley of Ice, and An- gles of Life.
All of Ron’s historical and ge- nealogical works were published after he retired from a successful business career as a vice presi- dent of Polaroid Corporation and the European Managing Director of Polaroid’s Graphic Arts Division. Following that, he was the President and CEO of an international industrial laser company. He is a member of the New England Historic Ge- nealogical Society, the Scottish Genealogical Society, the Mull Historical and Archaeological Society, and the Mull Museum. Ron is the Senior Genealogical Curator for ScotsNewEngland (www.ScotsNewEngland.org). He is the Consulting Archivist for Sir Lachlan MacLean, 28th Chief of Clan MacLean at Duart Castle, Isle of Mull, Scotland. He was the Genealogist for the Clan Maclean International Gather- ing 2023 on the Isle of Mull.
Collin’s most recent work, The Great Camps of Newfound Lake: A Historical Summary, is precisely what the title reads: a historical summary detailing the natural wonders and stories the
Newfound camps offer. As pres- ident of the Hebron Historical Society, Ron became the go-to man regarding historical knowl- edge of Newfound. When asked where his inspiration came from for writing The Great Camps of Newfound Lake: A Historical Summary, it all
started with a sim- ple talk he put to- gether that he gave to different groups in the lakes. He gave his first talk about Newfound camps back in Feb- ruary of 2023, and a few men from one of the groups told him he should consider putting all his information in a book. After he got the same suggestion from the Hebron
about putting this historical in- formation into a book,” Collins said.
So February started the ten- month journey to publish Col- lin’s most recent book. Since Ron already had the PowerPoint pre-
Other works by Ronald Collins include:
• American and European Descendants of Charlemagne in two volumes
• American and European Descendants of William the Conqueror in three volumes
• The McLanes – The Origin of the Clan
• The McLanes – A New Hampshire Clan
• The History of Governor Nathaniel Berry
• Sergeant John Ordway, A History with His Genealogy
• A History of Newfound Lake
Women’s Group, Collins knew he had to put this plan into ac- tion. “There was a lot of positive encouragement from the groups
sentation with 95 slides, 95 pho- tos, and four maps, the author was in an excellent spot to get his book published. “The enthusi- asm of people who wanted this book was a huge positive influ- ence,” Collins stated. “There is so much history in this tiny little town.” Collins’ motivations lie in learning and researching history and how captivating it can be.
With all of the fascinating stories and information from Collins’ newest book, there is no doubt that readers will get an en- tire history lesson when devour- ing this book. There really is a special feeling that comes with reading the history of your own town community.
From learning that Camp Pasquaney is the longest-run- ning boys in its original location camp in the United States and that Camp Onaway is the lon- gest-running girls; camp in the
Ron signing red book
United States, readers are going to take in a multitude of facts they may never have known if they do not read The Great Camps of Newfound Lake: A Historical Summary.
With all of the positive feed- back originating before this book was even written, Ron knows that there are so many more stories to be told about Newfound’s camps. “I know that there are thousands of stories out there about these camps, and they should be told. If anyone knows any stories about the camps in Newfound, they can email Ron at Ronald- wcollins@live.com. There might just be a second edition in the future!
The Great Camps of New- found Lake: A Historical Sum- mary can be purchased on Amazon or through The Hebron Historical Society.
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