Walter Moore Coleman was born in Chappell Hill, Texas, on December 21, 1863, to William Ludlow and Maria Jane Stewart.

Coleman attended Sam Houston Normal Institute and was in the graduating class of 1879-1880. He later attended Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, where he graduated in 1884.

Coleman was principal at Belton High School in Belton, Texas, for two terms (1884-1887) before he became a faculty member at SHNI in 1887 for the first time. He taught physiology and natural science and was one of the first to be called a biologist. After two years as a faculty member, he resigned to travel abroad and explore the realm of science. During this time, he attended the University of Berlin (1889-1890) and the Royal School of Science in London (1890). In 1890, he returned to SHNI with his same teaching duties.

On March 13, 1896, Coleman married Satis Narrona Barton from Tyler, Texas.

In 1908, he resigned from SHNI for the second and last time to conduct research in physiology at the University of Berlin. In 1909, he continued his studies at a hospital in London, where he was later named a Fellow of the Physical Society of London.

Coleman published many books and articles such as "Elements of Physiology" (1903), "Hygienic Physiology" (1905), "First Course in Biology" (co-authored, 1908), "The Cause of Sleep" (1909), "The People's Health" (1913), "Mental Biology Part I Sleep" (1909) with part II "Telegry" (1916), and part III "Moods" (1917).

Later Coleman returned to the United States, where he lived for a brief time in Washington D.C. (1917) and Corpus Christi, Texas (1918), until he moved to British Suva, Fiji (then still under the United Kingdom's rule). Coleman died in Fiji on September 20, 1925.