Abdul Collier, businessman, former high school basketball star, and girl dad, has died at 45

Abdul Collier, 45, formerly of Philadelphia, a longtime businessman who specialized in insurance and financial services, an all-star basketball player at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School in 1995 and 1996, and girl dad of daughters he let paint both his fingernails and toenails, died Saturday, Jan. 13, of a heart attack at his home in Phoenix.

Mr. Collier worked most recently as a regional vice president at Senior Life Insurance Co. and previously as an associate at other insurance and financial firms. He was good with numbers, enjoyed interacting with clients, and showed the same energy and enthusiasm for business that he poured into his high school basketball career in Montgomery County.

He studied business and played basketball at Drake University in Iowa and Philadelphia College of Textiles & Science, now Thomas Jefferson University, and moved from Conshohocken to Goodyear, Ariz., in 2007. “He was an amazing businessman because he never met a stranger,” said his mother, Linda. “And he was driven.”

At Plymouth Whitemarsh, Mr. Collier flashed the extraordinary basketball skills that made him one of the region’s best high school players from 1994 to 1996. A 6-foot-5 guard and power forward, he learned to play against older and bigger opponents in neighborhood leagues and on playgrounds around Philadelphia, and teammates compared him to former 76ers star Charles Barkley and called him their “go-to guy.”

He scored 1,121 points in just two seasons, averaged 19 points per game, and led the Colonials to the 1996 state playoffs and two of their best seasons ever. He scored his 1,000th career point at Plymouth Whitemarsh in 1996, and his mother was cheering in the stands.

“The most important thing to me is my mother,” Mr. Collier told the Times Herald of Norristown after that game. “I care about her so much. She’s done a lot for me. To see her so happy like that, it made me feel good.”

Later that season, he swished two game-clinching free throws with seven seconds to play amid a thunderous clamor from the crowd at an all-star game. “There was no pressure,” he told The Inquirer afterward. “It was just a bunch of guys who know each other getting together to play some ball.”

In a recent Facebook tribute, Al Angelos, his high school coach, said Mr. Collier’s “positive attitude” inspired his teammates and that “his physical gifts, intensity, and strength were remarkable.”

Injuries to his knee and ankle sidetracked his college playing career in 2001, so he went all in on business. In 1996, he told The Inquirer: “I always knew I would do something. My mother taught me a lot.”

Nothing sidetracked Mr. Collier’s attention to his daughters, his mother said. He doted on Mikaila, Rosa Lynn, and Alyssa, and delighted in spending time with them and being the loudest parent in the crowd at their sporting events.

He also mentored young men at Palm Valley Church, often paid the bill for others at restaurants, and actively sought ways to pay it forward. “He wanted to help young people and make a difference in everyone’s life,” his mother said.

Abdul Hassan Collier was born Aug. 26, 1978, in Philadelphia. He grew up in Germantown and was humble and helpful, his mother said.

He had a growth spurt when he was 10 and was taller at 12 than most of his friends. He went to Martin Luther King High School, became a starter on the basketball team as a sophomore, and scored the game-winning basket in a Public League playoff game.

He was actually better in football than basketball, his mother said. He had a great throwing arm. But she didn’t like the idea of him getting injured.

She moved to Conshohocken after his sophomore year in high school, and, working hard to keep his grades up, he was named student of the month in November 1995 for his leadership role in a racial sensitivity program. He also joined the Rho chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity later at Textile.

Mr. Collier liked to sing and dance around the house, and tell silly jokes. His family and friends called him “Ab.”

He followed the Eagles and the University of Alabama football team closely, and especially enjoyed arguing about football and other sports with his mother. He married Carolyn Palomeque, and they had daughters Rosa Lynn, and Alyssa. They divorced later.

Mr. Collier was a foodie and master griller who specialized in ribs, potato salad, and macaroni and cheese. He visited new restaurants regularly and searched far and wide in Arizona for the best Philly cheesesteak.

He made friends easily, and he had many of them. “He brought people together,” his family said in a tribute. He had a kidney transplant in 2022.

“He had a beautiful smile and was always in a good mood,” his mother said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better son.”

In addition to his mother, daughters, and former wife, Mr. Collier is survived by his father, Lee Dyches Jr., and other relatives.

Services were held Feb. 2.

Donations in his name may be made to the American Heart Association, Box 840692, Dallas, Texas, 75284; and the American Society of Transplantation, 1000 Atrium Way, Suite 400, Mount Laurel, N.J. 08054.