New Scholarship fund honors STM’s founding pastor
When Mother Teresa visited St. Thomas More Parish in Allentown in 1976, she came at the invitation of a priest whose vision of Catholic service would eventually reach across the globe.
Monsignor Robert J. Coll, the parish’s charismatic founding pastor, had launched Operation Rice Bowl a year earlier, asking families to sacrifice a meal during Lent and donate the savings to feed the hungry in Africa.
Mother Teresa came to receive the proceeds of that first campaign. I was blessed to meet her that April day when as a naïve 8th grader, I unknowingly “crashed” a private reception at the rectory and asked if she would sign my copy of Time magazine that featured her on the cover. Monsignor Coll graciously took my magazine and returned it a few days later with a beautiful, signed message from the future saint.
I’ll never forget the feeling that enveloped me when I stood in her presence. Afterwards, I wasn’t even sure what had just happened until one of the playground moms told me I experienced a moment of holiness because “you were in the presence of a saint.”
Mother Teresa thanked Monsignor Coll and a packed church for their generous support of Operation Rice Bowl. What began in one Allentown parish became Catholic Relief Services’ nationwide Lenten program, ultimately raising more than $350 million for humanitarian relief.
Now, 50 years later, Monsignor Coll’s extraordinary legacy of compassion is coming home.
About the St. Thomas More Monsignor Robert J. Coll Scholarship Fund
The St. Thomas More Msgr. Robert J. Coll Scholarship Fund, established with initial funding from his estate, will provide scholarships for children whose families need financial assistance to attend St. Thomas More School.
It is a fitting tribute to a larger-than-life priest who believed faith demanded action. He truly was a force of faith who got things done and inspired others to do the same.
As founding pastor from 1966 to 1980, Monsignor Coll built more than a parish. He inspired a community rooted in faith, generosity and service.
His ministry later carried him into war-torn Lebanon alongside Mother Teresa, famine-stricken Ethiopia and humanitarian crises around the world through his leadership with Catholic Relief Services.
Yet his heart remained that of a parish priest. He believed whole heartily in the impact of Catholic education and built St. Thomas More School to be a premiere academic and spiritual institution from day one.
Monsignor Coll died April 20, 2026, at age 95, after nearly 67 years of priesthood.
The scholarship bearing his name will now carry forward his conviction that even modest acts of generosity can change lives.
A priest who helped feed the world will now help educate generations of children in the parish where his remarkable legacy began.
God Bless Father Coll.
With warmest regards,
Pete Waldron
President
petewaldron@catholicfoundationep.org
