Norman Coll was born in Wigan, Lancashire, England on 15 May 1895, the son of Peter Coll and Nancy (Brierley) Coll (1860-1926). His parents and siblings (Aaron, James, Arthur, Lillian, and Ivy) are believed to have immigrated to Canada in 1904. Norman was educated in public schools in Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia. He enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force on 7 May 1917 and served in France during the First World War with the Third Canadian Siege Battery from Montreal. At the conclusion of the war he returned to Mount Allison University where he received his BA (Honours in Philosophy) in 1920 and MA in 1921. He received his BD from Victoria College at the University of Toronto in 1922 and was ordained in Sydney, Nova Scotia. He was married to Beulah Grant McLean in Eureka, Nova Scotia on 2 July 1923. His first congregation was in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia where he remained until 1924 when he began graduate studies in religious education at Yale University while serving at the Second Congregational Church in West Cornwall, Connecticut. He received his PhD in 1926 and on July first was appointed Field Secretary of Religious Education for the Montreal and Ottawa District of the United Church. He served during the Second World War rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. For his service he was awarded the Military Order of the British Empire. He was also conferred with an honorary Doctor of Divinity by Mount Allison University during the special convocation held in the fall of 1945. He died on 16 December 1990 in Ottawa, Ontario.