My father, Coleman Park Colla, passed away on September 3, 2025. He died peacefully, in his sleep. He was at peace with himself and was surrounded by many people who loved and admired him.
This is the obituary my uncle, Stan Colla, and I wrote for him.
Coleman was born on December 24, 1935, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Stanley Albert Colla and Alice Adele Colla. He spent his childhood in Oakmont (now Haverford), Pennsylvania, where his grandparents and cousins lived nearby, and enjoyed summer months on the New Jersey shore with them. In 1949, his family moved to London, England, where his father’s company was helping with post-war reconstruction.
Upon returning to the United States in 1950, his family relocated to Buffalo, New York, where Coleman enrolled at the Nichols School. He excelled in school, particularly in math and science, and graduated as valedictorian of the Class of 1954. In his junior year, he was initiated into the secret society, Amun Ra. After high school, Coleman followed in his father’s footsteps by entering Dartmouth College, where he majored in Engineering. He joined the Theta Delta Chi fraternity and was elected president of it in his senior year. He was also elected to Casque and Gauntlet, a senior honor society. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with the Class of 1958.
While at Dartmouth, Coleman nurtured his love of the outdoors by joining the Dartmouth Outing Club, the oldest such collegiate organization in the country. As an upperclassman, he led freshman trips that introduced new students to Dartmouth’s outdoor surroundings, and he helped lead the building of Winter Carnival snow sculptures in the center of campus.
Coleman undertook a fifth year at Dartmouth during which he earned an MS in electrical engineering and was, again, the top student in his class. Upon graduating, Coleman drove across the country with a classmate to accept his first full-time job at Hughes Aircraft in California.
In 1961, Coleman married Leslie Collins, a native of Pasadena who had gone to Smith College. Coleman and Leslie lived together briefly in Orange County before moving to Los Angeles in 1962 to pursue a job opportunity at IBM. Soon thereafter, they relocated to Pasadena and gave birth to Phillip, the first of their children. Another son, Elliott, followed in 1965, and a daughter, Ashley, in 1970.
Coleman left IBM to join Standard Computer, a start-up company in Orange County and the family relocated to Newport Beach in 1967. After Standard Computer closed in 1970, Coleman worked at other companies before accepting a position at Rockwell International, where he worked almost continuously for the next three decades. Along the way, Coleman earned an MBA from Cal State Fullerton.
Coleman and Leslie divorced in 1981. In 1986, Coleman married Nadine Antin Rubin and later converted to Judaism, which he embraced wholeheartedly. Together, Coleman and Nadine lived in Studio City and Westlake Village before settling down in Park La Brea, the post-war Wilshire District development where Coleman and Nadine flourished. There, Coleman volunteered at a local Jewish food bank, attended services at a local synagogue, managed the community garden for the housing project, and published a delightful blog known as Coleman’s Mental Meanderings. Coleman was a voracious reader, an aficionado of Yiddish, and fan of the New York Yankees. He loved movies, listening to the sound of rain, and sharing meals with friends and family. He was also a serious student of the Torah, and attended multiple weekly drashes taught by Los Angeles’s most learned rabbis.
Coleman was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife, Nadine Antin-Colla; his three children and their spouses (Phillip and Tracy Colla, Elliott Colla and Nadia Mahdi, and Ashley and Neil Hafer); three stepsons, a spouse, and a partner, Adam Rubin, Matthew Rubin and Amy Kane, and Daniel Rubin and Christina Ioannou; as well as ten grandchildren (Amanda, Sarah, Chelsea, Lindsey, Zoey, Clara, Lina, Elior, Na’amah, and Asa). He is also survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Stanley and Judith Colla, and his cousin, Ada Claire King.
Coleman is interred at Mount Sinai Memorial Park in the Hollywood Hills.