David was born in Montreal in 1933, and arrived in St. Lambert in 1944 in the middle of the Fall Term of Grade 6, after years of following his father's career at construction sites from Montreal to St. Paul l'Hermit, to Shipshaw, to Newfoundland and back. He was assigned to Mrs. Bickford's class and “ was seated between Dave Cummings and Stew Lalonde – thinking his life had ended!” David says, “ happily it was the beginning of a number of lifelong friendships.” He moved on to Miss Sargeant, Miss Gallant, Ken Elliott, Mr. Carson, and “ to That Lucky Ole Ma who promptly banned me from her Grade 11 Algebra and History classes for the duration – I have no idea why; it couldn't have been for playing cards in the .back of the class with Mike Curtis could it? “.

David says this allowed him extra periods each day “ to lose money in the pool hall over the Victoria Theater, but I still managed to get the gold watch and give the valedictory address – the first for the newly named (to the horror of our wounded St. Lambert pride) Chambly County High School.”

During this time David also managed the Senior B hockey team (which he say “meant I got to take the sweaty sweaters home)”. He was also Eaton's Junior Executive.

Following high school graduation David attended McGill University, from where he graduated with a B.Eng. in Engineering Physics.

David recalls that during this time he boarded on Mercille and Margaret Duhan and he went steady so he could have Sunday dinners at her place just up the block (and for a few other reasons as well). He also recalls that Mike Curtis introduced him to his fraternity while I on a trip to Toronto. “ DKE became our home away from home where Marg and I had a great time with fraternity parties as well as with our friends in St. Lambert.” David and Marg Duhan were married in September 1955 and first lived in a basement apartment at the corner of Victoria and Riverside. He mentions that “ this is when they started building the St. Lawrence Seaway. So instead of a 'Bathing Beach' across the road, we had round the clock blasting.”

The Colls were there for a year while David got his M. Eng. in Electrical Engineering at McGill. (I was on educational leave from the Defense Research Board in Ottawa, and after finishing Marg and I moved to Ottawa in 1956.) David states:
“ I studied Information Theory at MIT from 1957 to 1959, after which we bought a house in Ottawa in which we still live. While at DRB I started teaching part-time at Carleton University which had just introduced an Engineering program. I invited Don George* (see note below) to come to work with me at DRB for the summer and while there he formulated the theoretical solution to a problem that restricted the rate that data could be transmitted through a channel. I remarked when he was explaining it to me that “I could build that” – and build it I did. We ended up inventing the data channel equalizer for which we got the US patent (the Crown owned it), and I turned the exercise into a Ph.D. thesis and in 1966 was awarded the first Ph.D. in Engineering from Carleton University. I joined Carleton full time a year later. My field of study is telecommunications, particularly applications of broadband multimedia networks, which we called The Wired City then. I became a full Professor in 1973, and was Head of Systems and Computer Engineering from 1975 to 1978 and again in 1989-89, and 'retired' as Professor Emeritus in 1998. I still lecture in Telecommunications Technology and in the Carleton Learning-in-Retirement series. In 1978, I incorporated a company, called DCC Informatics Inc., to accommodate my consulting practice.”

The Colls have three children whom “ now all live in houses they can't afford.” Our oldest, Barb, a Carleton Engineering grad is Webmama.com, a webmarketing guru in Silicon Valley (CA) and the mother of our grandson James; Eric, a Carleton and McGill Engineering grad is a self-employed telecom training expert and lives in St. Lambert with his partner and three of our grandchildren; and Nancy, following in her mother's footsteps, is the Event Manager for the Canadian Pharmacists Association in Ottawa.