Inducted in 2007
Financial Services Executive
World Trade Center Hero
Father of a Prep Graduate

Induction Video

Named after Msgr. Robert J. Coll, his uncle, Robert "Bobby" Coll, Jr. was born in 1965. He graduated from Fordham Prep in 1984 and from St. Lawrence University in 1988, later attending the Stern School of Business at New York University in the evenings and receiving his MBA in 1995. At the time of his death in 2001, he was a senior vice president for capital markets at Euro Brokers.
 
Robert was the eighth of nine children of Edward Coll Jr. and Mary Elizabeth Hiltebietel Coll, and was viewed as a peacemaker in his family.  In the words of his family, Bobby was ”compassionate and good with people” — traits that would serve him well later on in his professional life. He had spent his early years in the Philadelphia area, but early on move to New Rochelle, New York with his family where he lived during high school.
 
He played football at the Prep and developed a reputation as a happy and enthusiastic classmate. As remembered by a friend from his Prep days: “Bob will always be frozen in time in my mind as this little, blond-haired, totally fearless member of the freshman and JV teams. He always stood out. He didn’t like it when his teams weren’t taken as seriously as the varsity squads, and he wasn’t afraid to make his feelings known. He was never deferential; he was always respected for his guts.”
 
Long after Coll's Shea Hall days, the memory of that "fearless, little, blond-haired" footballer would remain strong in the hearts and minds of many who had known him. As Robert's sister-in-law, Pamela Coll, would recall, fellow Hall of Honor inductee, Bruce Bott, would often share stories of the “happy and sometimes mischievous moments of Bobby’s years at the Prep” with her son, Edward Coll IV, Class of 2006, when he was just starting out as a nervous freshman in the fall of 2002.
 
Bobby and his wife Jennifer Palmer Coll settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey and had two children. Megan and Bobby III were 2½ years and 9 months old respectively, when they lost their father. Friends described him as a man who hand done a lot of living during his 35 years. According to his sister, Suzanne Coll Valentino, Bob and Jennifer were “always on the go with the kids,” skiing at Stratton and summering in Ocean City and Westhampton.  Coll had always been a tireless athlete. He enjoyed surfing, skiing, and sailing most of all.  Becoming a husband and father never stifled the sportsman in Coll. A true family man, he simply packed up his family and took them along for the adventure.

His friends and clients called him "Woody," chiefly because of a stubborn cowlick, but also because of his good sense of humor. He enjoyed playing minor practical jokes on his friends and co-workers, especially at charity sporting events. Those same traits made people feel very much at ease with him. Despite an easy-going and playful spirit, his reliability and diligence were a matter of legend at Euro Brokers -- he would be at his desk early every morning, even after a previous late evening with clients.

His brother, Edward Coll III, Prep Class of 1974, described Bobby as someone who was making a transition in the family from the baby brother to the sibling that everyone could depend on. He was just beginning to spread his wings.

In an extraordinary way, Robert Coll proved he was  a "man for others” on September 11, 2001. He was last seen on the upper floors of the South Tower of the World Trade Center helping a woman — a stranger — who was in respiratory distress and was having trouble escaping. A colleague described him as a hero, as did nine daily newspapers in the aftermath of 9/11.
 
In her reminiscences, Bob’s sister Suzanne recalled that when her family moved here from Philadelphia, her father, a graduate of St. Joseph’s Prep in that city, made a conscious choice to place his sons in a Jesuit high school in New York — it was all about the values he knew would be instilled in the boys. That those values were instilled, there can be no doubt.
 
Robert Joseph Coll Jr. is buried in Westhampton, New York where his life is celebrated and his great sacrifice is honored each year on the anniversary of his death.