Norris B. Lankford ’58

Norris died July 1, 2015, of natural causes.

Norris prepared at the Gilman School, where he had been president of the political club. At Princeton, Norris’s major bridged the fields of electrical engineering and physics. He was a member of Prospect and roomed with Ted Bromley, Dennis Day, John Heckscher, Duncan Van Dusen, and Ed Wrenn during his senior year.

After graduation, Norris attended the University of Virginia’s Graduate School of Business for one year until the draft caught up with him. After his military service, he joined the 29th Division of the Maryland National Guard and attended Officer Candidate School, where he finished as a first lieutenant.

Norris initially worked as a salesman for IBM, then in computer engineering at Westinghouse, and finally in telephone transmission at Western Electric and AT&T. He retired in 1989.

Norris lived in the family house where he had grown up and oversaw a suburban farm. He was a member of the Yacht Squadron at Gibson Island, Md., where he raced his Star sailboat. In his early years, he enjoyed mat surfing at Ocean City, Md., and later enjoyed the same activity on the North Shore of Oahu. He belonged to the Eastern Shore Society of Maryland and the Ancient and Honorable, the oldest civic organization in America

To Dorothea, his wife of 41 years, the class sends its deepest sympathy.