Norm Coleman - Early Life

Early Life

Coleman was born in New York, the son of Beverly (née Behrman) and Norman Bertram Coleman, Sr. His family was Jewish (his paternal grandfather had changed his surname from Goldman to Coleman). He was a graduate of James Madison High School in Brooklyn and Hofstra University on Long Island. New York Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, attended high school with Coleman; Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg are both graduates of the same high school.

During his time at college, Coleman was an active member of the 1960s counterculture and a liberal Democrat. "Carting a bullhorn around campus, he'd regularly lecture students about the immorality of the Nixon administration and the Vietnam War." He successfully ran for president of the student senate during his junior year. Under Coleman, the senate refused to ratify the newspaper's editor and her co-editor and cut some funding to the newspaper. But after refusing to swear in the editor on four different occasions, the senate finally backed down. He allegedly smoked marijuana, and he celebrated his 20th birthday at the Woodstock Festival. He worked as a roadie for Jethro Tull and Ten Years After, amongst others.