Edwin Nelson Kimball was born in Atlanta in 1870, the first child of carriage maker Edwin Kimball and Emma Cook. Edwin's family is well known as the family owned carriage building companies.
In 1873, Edwin and his parents moved to Canada, where his sister Emma was born, and later settled in Massachusetts, where his brother George was born. Edwin studied in Boston and, after graduation, worked in his father's retail blueprint business. He married Susan Gertrude Kimball on September 26, 1893 in Brooklyn. The couple never had children. Edwin Nelson Kimball and his wife Susan Gertrude Kimball boarded the Titanic on April 10, 1912 at Southampton as First Class passengers.
On the night of the sinking (April 14–15, 1912), Edwin, his wife Susan, and friends Sarah Maybell Beckwith, Richard Leonard Beckwith, Helen Monypeny Newsom, and Karl Howell Behr were together on deck. They all boarded lifeboat 5 and thus managed to escape the ship's sinking.
Years after the disaster, Edwin and his wife, Susan Gertrude Kimball, continued to live in Massachusetts although, around 1920, they lived in Newton, Middelesex. In 1922, Edwin retired and was active in various associations including the Boston Athletic Association, the Brae-Burn Country Club, and the Automobile Club. Finally, Edwin Nelson Kimball died in 1927 due to severe pneumonia, leaving his wife a widow. He was buried in the Newton, Massachusetts Cemetery.