Family Notes
Norman went to Bhenke-Walker Business College from 1933 to 1936. He took courses in Astronomy at Lewis and Clark College in 1958.
Winifred went to Oregon State from 1938 to 1939. She worked as a Secretary at the Veterans Hospital where she and Norman met.
In the early 1960's Blue Cross wanted to reduce the size of their records by 20%. Norman devised a method to modify the lens on their Xerox machine to accomplish the task. He got paid about $38 for his time
Norman and his involvement with OMSI
Norman was involved with the "proto-OMSI" that was in an old house located where the Nordstrom's in the Lloyd Center was; There was a small planetarium there in the old house. He built the planetarium projector and designed the lighting effects that were used there and at the 'new' OMSI (on the hill) before they bought a commercially produced one many years later. He wrote the star talks for the planetarium and was involved with many yearly "star parties" at the new OMSI. He retired from the planetarium around 1982 but volenteered at OMSI several years after he retired. After the museum on the hill was built he was full time with OMSI; he had been part-time before and worked for the VA most of the time.
As far as the astronomy club: I recall he built from scratch at least 3 telescopes. He ground the lenses and assembled the telescopes from really stout cardboard tubes that he bought or found somewhere. One had a 12" or larger mirror that he ground on for a long time. He built a refracting thing to check the focus of the lenses as they neared completion. He was also the club's secretary for several years?
Family Photos
Ruby, Paul, Beth Smale
Bill, Norman, Winnie and Mark. Paul, Ruby and Beth
Norman, Winnie circa 1990