Collin Edson Ostrander, a World War II veteran and foreign service officer, died Dec. 28, 2010, at The Forest at Duke, Durham, N.C. He was 90 years old.

Collin was born in Albert Lea to Floris and Selma Ostrander. He graduated from high school in Albert Lea and from Macalester College in St. Paul. He attended naval officer training schools at Notre Dame and Northwestern. On the USS Leedstown (APA-56), an assault transport ship, his division landed Army and Marine Corps troops in the invasions of Kwajalein, Guam, Peleliu, Leyte, Luzon and Iwo Jima. His ship was readying for the invasion of Japan when the atomic bomb was dropped.

After the war, he was a training officer at the naval base in Newport, R.I., and executive officer on the USS Arcturus (AKA-1), an assault cargo vessel during her decommissioning. After these brief assignments, he was a press officer in the Navy’s Office of Public Relations in Washington, D.C.

Returning to civilian life in 1947, he was a writer-editor for a Washington-area magazine. In 1951 he was appointed a foreign service officer in the Department of State, later the United States Information Agency. He was posted to the Union of South Africa, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Iran and Vietnam, as well as two assignments in Washington. He retired to Charlottesville, Va., in 1970, pursuing his interests in history and genealogy.

In 1946 he married his college girlfriend, Elizabeth Murray Turner, from Duluth. She accompanied her husband to all of his foreign service assignments except Vietnam. In 1999 Collin and Elizabeth (Betty) moved to Durham, N.C., where she continues to reside. Other survivors include a number of nieces and nephews, including Peter Berglund of Albert Lea and Georgia Stankey of Mankato. Collin was predeceased by his parents and siblings Meralda Johnson, Eveleth Berglund, Eileen Cowan, Arnett and George.