By Keysha Drexel
Journal editor
Sitting in his office on Montclair Road, Charles Collat Sr. is surrounded by more than half a century’s worth of memories stored on every medium imaginable.
And while the 82-year-old can vividly recall almost every moment preserved on the films, slides and tapes, he knows his beloved wife, Patsy, doesn’t recognize much about the 61 years of life documented in the collection.
“The full flavor of all those events is still fresh in my mind, but my Patsy can’t remember any of it. Our history has been taken away from her, little by little, and she’ll never get those memories back,” he said. “Alzheimer’s is a one way street, a death sentence. It’s a terrible disease for those who have it, and it’s incredibly tough on their loved ones.”
In an effort to help Alzheimer’s patients and their loved ones, Collat recently established an endowment program in Patsy’s honor for Alzheimer’s of Central Alabama, a nonprofit volunteer organization and resource center serving Alzheimer’s patients, caregivers and professionals across a 21-county area.
“All I did was make a commitment over a 10-year period to help Alzheimer’s of Central Alabama continue and expand their work to reach even more people,” Collat said.
But Collat’s seven figure commitment to the endowment is actually a bigger deal than the well-known philanthropist lets on, said Miller Piggott, an ACA founding member who has been the organization’s director since 1997.
“The endowment means the gift of permanence (to ACA),” Piggott said. “We’re not a new organization–we’re 24 years into this–but we have always been very event-driven and are always looking forward to the next event to help us raise the money we need to help Alzheimer’s patients and their families. What Mr. Collat has done is give us money that we can count on, and that is huge.”
Collat said he became involved with ACA shortly after Patsy was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s after she had back surgery about 10 years ago.
“Patsy’s back gave way and she had to go through six operations and was still in chronic pain,” he said. “After the last operation, the physical therapist was trying to show her the exercises she needed to do, but from one day to the next, Patsy couldn’t remember the physical therapist’s instructions.”
Initially, Patsy’s doctors thought the memory lapses were due to the anesthesia given to her during the back surgery.
“But we had her tested, and although there’s no way to tell for sure a person has Alzheimer’s until after they have died, the test indicated that Patsy had all the signs,” Collat said. “I was heartbroken. I knew it was only a matter of time before I lost her.”
Collat said he knew if his wife found out about the diagnosis, she would be terrified. He consulted with the couple’s four children–Nancy Goedecke, Caki Mendel, Susie Collat and Charles Collat Jr.–on whether to tell Patsy she had the early signs of Alzheimer’s.
“We had a friend that had Alzheimer’s, and it was something that scared her,” he said. “We decided not to tell her about the diagnosis. We were planning a trip at the time, so we decided to focus on making the best of the time we had left.”
But Collat said he was unprepared for how quickly the disease would ravage the woman he has loved since he was 15 years old. He said Patsy took every medication available that offered even a slim chance of postponing the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s, but nothing worked.
Collat said Patsy has tried several drugs in the treatment of Alzheimer’s but none have proven to be effective over the decade since she was diagnosed.
“It’s only been 10 years, but now Patsy needs around-the-clock care,” he said. “Alzheimer’s is a disease that has its own timeline, and it’s different for every person. I think I spent the first two years after she was diagnosed either crying alone or crying with my family.”
About eight years ago, Collat decided to attend one of the support groups ACA hosts for caregivers and family members of Alzheimer’s patients.
“It was there at those support group meetings where I heard some of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard in my life,” he said. “I met people who literally couldn’t leave the house because they had no one else to take care of their loved ones. I heard from people who couldn’t afford to buy (adult) diapers for their loved ones with Alzheimer’s. I knew I had to do something to help people who can’t afford the basic things they need.”
Collat said he also hopes the endowment will help fund more research into preventing Alzheimer’s and slowing its devastating effects.
“Look, nothing has really changed as far as what we know about Alzheimer’s in the 10 years since Patsy was diagnosed, and that’s a shame,” he said. “We won’t be able to find a cure to help Patsy or other people who have the disease now, but we have got to try to do something for future generations.”
Before he established the endowment fund for ACA, Collat and his wife made substantial contributions to the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Department of Neurology, establishing the Charles A. and Patsy W. Collat Endowed Chair in Neurosurgery and the Patsy W. and Charles A. Collat Scholar in Neuroscience at UAB.
“My family and I have worked hard, and I’ve been extremely fortunate to have been surrounded by wonderful people who helped propel our business to success,” he said. “I feel very lucky to be in a position to help others.”
A native of Savannah, Ga., Collat is the former chief executive officer of Mayer Electric Supply Co., Inc., which was founded by Patsy’s father, Ben S. Weil.
“When I grew up in Savannah, it was 50 years behind the times and not the travel destination it is today,” he said. “I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, by any means.”
When he was 15, Collat traveled to Jacksonville, Fla., to attend a temple youth conference. That’s where he first laid eyes on Patsy.
“We were both 15, and we met and we fell in love instantly,” Collat said. “I didn’t have any money back then, so I would send her postcards every week.”
The couple stayed in touch, and Collat entered the University of Georgia without much of an idea of what career path he would choose.
“I was a terrible freshman, just absolutely worthless,” he said. “But all that changed when my father died when I was 18, and I looked around and realized that there was no one to look after me and that I was going to have to look after myself. I figured that everyone needed someone to keep their books, so I studied accounting.”
Collat joined the U.S. Air Force after graduating from college, and he and Patsy took their first trip of many together.
“I had to report for service in Los Angeles, so our first big trip was out to California, and it was a great trip,” he said. “Since then, we’ve been fortunate to see a better part of the world together.”
After serving in Japan during the Korean War, Collat returned home and joined Mayer Electric as an associate in 1953. He took the reins of the company in 1979, and under his leadership Mayer Electric grew to be one of the largest electrical distributors in the nation, expanding from about 20 employees to nearly 1,000. The couple’s daughter, Nancy, now serves as the company’s chairman and CEO.
And while he and Patsy were helping the family business grow and raising their children, the couple also made it a point to get involved in giving back to their community.
“Before we could give money, we gave our time, and when we were able to do both, we gave both our time and money,” Collat said.
The couple has long supported a number of philanthropic causes, including United Way of Central Alabama, the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind, the Boy Scouts and many others.
The Collat Jewish Family Services agency was named in the couple’s honor due to their flagship gift. They established the endowment fund for Temple Emanu-El and supported the temple’s renovation, where the Collat Congregational Center was named in their honor.
In 1991, the couple donated $600,000 so UAB could launch one of the country’s few degree-granting Industrial Distribution programs in accredited schools of business and engineering. They also endowed the first non-medical academic chair at UAB, the Ben S. Weil Chair of Industrial Distribution–named for Patsy’s father.
“Last year, we made a little donation to the UAB School of Business,” Collat said.
In 2013, the UAB School of Business was named for Charles and Patsy Collat in recognition of their $25 million in gifts and pledges to the school. Their collective gifts to UAB, which also includes gifts to the School of Medicine, the School of Education and UAB athletics, represent the largest philanthropic support from any donor to UAB.
“I came from modest means, and I don’t think I’ve ever forgotten that,” he said. “I think that it’s my duty to support those entities that make the broadest positive impact.”
And Collat is confident the endowment he has established at ACA will have a positive impact on many lives.
“Miller and Vance (Holder) and everyone at ACA works really hard to reach as many people as they can, and hopefully, with support from others, this endowment can help fund more programs and more research.”
Another way the ACA works to fund more programs and research is its annual Walking to Remember event.
This year’s event will be held Nov. 1 at the Riverchase Galleria in Hoover. The family-friendly event offers participants the opportunity to form walk teams and raise money in honor or memory of loved ones.
All proceeds benefit ACA programs and services, such as scholarships for patients to attend adult day care programs.
The walk will start in the Galleria’s food court area.
Since the beginning of the year, Collat said, he’s been on his own walk to remember, as he looks through more than 50 years of films, slides and tapes filled with a lifetime of memories he made with Patsy.
“I’m doing this to save my children the trouble of having to go through all of this after I pass away,” he said. “It has reminded me of how much fun Patsy and I have had. We’ve been very lucky.”
And despite the heartache of watching the love of his life disappear little by little over the last decade, Collat said he still considers himself a lucky man.
“Every evening, I get to go home and hold Patsy’s hand and tell her that I love her–and she still says it back to me. ‘I love you,’ she says, and for just those few moments, it feels like nothing has changed.”
For more information about Walking to Remember, visit www.alzca.org.
