James A. Collins

Born in Huntington Park, California, James Collins was the son of an engineer. When he was 11, Collins helped his father build a house for their family. He earned 50 cents a day on the construction project, and by the end of the summer, he had saved $40. Collins used that money to purchase a horse, but he needed a loan to buy hay to feed it. His father took him to the bank, where Collins took out a $45 loan, which his father cosigned. Collins paid back the loan from the money he earned from his newspaper route. Later, he joined 4-H and bought a cow, whose milk he sold to neighbors. He also made money selling turkeys at Thanksgiving, and he mowed lawns for many of the customers on his newspaper route.

After high school, Collins joined the U.S. Navy and served during World War II. He used the GI bill to enroll at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). To help meet expenses, he washed dishes twice a day at his fraternity house. He earned a degree in civil engineering but left his job with a construction company in 1952. After meeting the McDonald brothers at their original 15-cent, self-service, hamburger stand, he opened a 19-cent, self-service, hamburger stand called Hamburger Handout. He opened a second stand in 1957 and two more by 1959. In 1960, he added Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to his menu. By 1962, he was the exclusive agent for Colonel Sanders to develop KFC take-home stores in southern California.

In 1967, Collins bought the Sizzler Family Steak House chain, and in November 1968, Collins Food International (CFI) went public. In 2001, CFI became Worldwide Restaurant Concepts (WWRC), and Jim Collins retired as chairman emeritus. WWRC was purchased by Pacifica Equity Partners in 2005 as a private company operating, franchising, or joint venturing 310 Sizzler restaurants worldwide, in addition to the 112 KFC restaurants in Queensland, Australia, and the 21 Pat & Oscars restaurants.

In the early 1960s, Collins became involved with his alma mater, UCLA, and the Los Angeles YMCA. At UCLA, he served as president of the Alumni Association (1974-76) and president of the UCLA Foundation (1980-82). He was Alumnus of the Year in 1982. Collins has been active with the Los Angeles YMCA since 1960 and was chairman of the board from 1978 to 1982.

Collins feels proud to have received the Horatio Alger Award. "Any success I have enjoyed," he says, "should be attributed to working hard, being lucky, being in the right place at the right time, having friends who returned unexpected favors, and having the love and support of my family as well as help from the good Lord!"