Rear Admiral LeRoy Collins Jr., executive director of the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs, was killed on Thursday morning when a car hit the bike he was riding in Tallahassee.

Collins was the son of former Gov. LeRoy Collins who served as governor from 1955 until 1961. The younger Collins graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1956 and served for 34 years in the Navy and the Naval Reserves. He worked in real estate and finance after leaving the Navy.

Collins, who was 75 when he died, had made a bid for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate in 2006 but placed a distant third. He was then appointed to head up the state Department of Veteran Affairs by Gov. Charlie Crist.