Coleman Daniel Clarke was a white Baptist missionary born on March 19, 1911, in Kuamoto, Japan, to missionary parents William Harvey and Lucile Daniel Clarke. He died on November 18th, 1996, in DeKalb County, Georgia. He married twice – first to Jennie “Jabe” Elizabeth Sheffield (m. 1935) and later to Mary Neal (m. 1984?). Clarke was a third-generation Southern Baptist missionary; his grandfather Reverend W.H. Clarke was one of the first Southern Baptist missionaries in Nigeria.

Coleman Clarke received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Mercer University in 1931, and later on graduated with a Masters of Theology degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1945. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Mercer University in 1957. Following his graduation from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Clarke spent three years in Hawaii as a Baptist missionary for Japanese-speakers for the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. He continued this work in Japan, where he remained until August 1967. In January 1966, Clarke and his wife were attacked by a student residing in their home. Clarke was hospitalized after receiving 17 knife cuts to his head and body, after which he and Jabe returned to the United States.