Born in Duluth, Minnesota in 1911, Norman left the University of Minnesota after 3 years to obtain a PhD in Economics at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC. Interested in economics and law, he was able to study with Supreme Court Justice Brandeis. When Brookings shut down its graduate program, he followed one of his professors to Yale Law School where he authored two law review articles — Legal Planning of Petroleum Production — on the need to regulate the petroleum industry.
At 23, he returned to Washington as an attorney with the SEC armed with 3 degrees awarded him during his Yale graduation –his college degree along with PhD and law degrees. Four years later, during the first 100 days of the Roosevelt Administration, he was recruited to head the federal initiative to regulate the petroleum industry. During that time, he met Sam Mosher, Signal Oil and Gas. Upon leaving the government in the late 1930s, he opened his own law firm in DC representing Mosher and others in the petroleum industry he regulated under the National Recovery Act.
In April 1945, her received a call from an unknown Robert Prescott, advising him that the Prescott/Mosher team were going to buy some airplanes and start an airline. Totally unaware of what Prescott was talking about, he stalled meeting with Prescott until he could call Mosher in Los Angles and to run to the library to read the Civil Aeronautics Act for the first time. That evening, following a meeting at the Mayflower Hotel, Norman agreed to incorporate National Skyway Freight as well as ascertain if the aircraft Prescott was ready to buy were free of liens. Discovering they were plastered with liens, the duo started negotiations to buy war surplus Budd Conestoga’s and a C-47 from Alaska Airlines.
The rest is history – “Normey” as Bob referred to him was by his side through the extremely turbulent years 1945 through late 1960s. When Tigers could not afford to retain an economist to prepare their financial projections for Tiger’s initial CAB certification, Norman dusted off his PhD, prepared the financial projections and submitted them to the CAB as Tiger’s lawyer/economist. When asked during Tiger’s first CAB hearing why the exhibits were labeled “NSF’ and not “FTL” he responded without a pause – “Nonsufficient Funds” and then noted the name change.
During Tigers first three decades, Norman was involved in every facet of Tigers activities – crafted contracts acquiring Budds to Boeings, heavily involved in the CL-44 acquisition, negotiated facility leases, crafted bank loans, public stock offerings and intimately involved in day-to-day operations despite Tigers being based in LA and he in DC. Despite “commuting” to Burbank and later LAX, Tigers maintained a DC office inside the law firm with one or more corporate officers based in DC.
After transitioning the legal work to another DC firm in the late 1960’s, Norman remained on the Tiger Board for some time.
Norman passed away in 1984 at the age of 78 survived by his daughter, his son and 3 grandchildren.