Norm grew up in Mason City, Iowa—the inspiration for River City in The Music Man—Nancy in Cleveland. (Quips Norm: “I thought of her as being from the East”!) Norm majored in economics at Dartmouth, Nancy in history at Wellesley (which her older sister also attended). On graduating from Dartmouth, Norm received a fellowship to attend the London School of Economics; after a year at LSE, he enrolled at the Harvard Business School. During Nancy’s senior year, one of her classmates, the fiancé of Norm’s Dartmouth roommate (then at the Harvard Law School), arranged a blind date for the two. They married just following Norm’s graduation from Harvard and honeymooned in Paris, the Loire Valley, London, and Scotland.
On graduating from Harvard, Norm joined JP Morgan as an economist in its international banking department. (He had worked at the bank for three summers while a student.) Nancy became a researcher at the Grolier Society. The young couple lived in Brooklyn Heights, which at the time was chockfull of young professionals. Living in the City was not, however, to their liking—too many people and too little open space—and after two years they sought a town with its own community (that is, a “non-bedroom community”), preferably one with a university. To their delight, they discovered Princeton. (One of the things that attracted them to Princeton: the town was blessed with a superb hospital.)
After a year at JP Morgan, Norm was asked to research what, if anything, the firm could do with its holding company, which had been prevented by the Kennedy administration from acquiring several large upstate New York banks. Conducting this research required that Norm collaborate with the firm’s senior executives: quite a visible position for a young banker! Over time, Norm came to do all manner of tasks for these executives, including writing some of their speeches and advising them on public policies. (At one point, he wrote a policy proposal for George Schultz, then Secretary of the Treasury, on how to rid the U.S. of controls on capital outflows. He also briefed the Council of Economic Advisors—as well as the IMF and World Bank—on a variety of international financial issues.)
Norm did quite a lot of research on international economic and financial issues, including advising the bank’s officers and clients on overseas business and financial-market prospects and exchange rates. This work involved active involvement with the firm’s Credit Policy Committee, particularly in assessing sovereign credit risks. Later in his career, Norm became Managing Director of the Global Research Division, with special focus on global market strategies. He also became a member of the Market Risk Committee, which consisted of most of the firm’s senior executives. He chaired a meeting every weekday afternoon at 4:00 to assess the market risks being taken by the firm throughout the world—no simple matter. Each day, Norm would draw up a report for the bank’s Chairman and CEO on the larger risk positions and the rationale for them. If a particular executive’s justifications for a certain position were questionable, Norm would press that executive for clarification; if the executive’s answers were not to Norm’s satisfaction, he would draw the Chairman’s attention to the issue.
Nancy continued her work with the Grolier Society after she and Norm moved to Princeton. She also volunteered at the Princeton Historical Society to aid in organizing its archives. She quite enjoyed her work and decided she would like to work in a library. Princeton’s Deputy University Librarian recommended that she obtain a masters degree in library science. She earned the degree at Drexel University (in one year rather than the usual two). The Deputy University Librarian offered her a position at once. A brilliant career in the Princeton University library system followed: Serials Librarian, Engineering Librarian (where the computer science department took her under its wing), the Associate University Librarian for Technical Services, the Deputy University Librarian (the Library’s COO, as it were); and finally, the apogee, Acting University Librarian. (At one point during her Princeton career, Nancy oversaw the automation of the library’s circulation, cataloguing, and acquisition systems.)
Norm and Nancy—both of whom retired a few years ago—are involved with quite a few nonprofit organizations, including Community Without Walls (which helps older adults “age in place”) and the Princeton Public Library (both served six years on the Council of the Friends of the Library). Nancy is on the Editorial Board of the Princeton University Library Chronicle—a scholarly journal that publishes research based on the Library’s collections—and has been a member of a committee that awards research grants to scholars who wish to use the Library’s collections. She also serves on the Board of the Friends of the Princeton University Library and was for a period the Board’s Chair. Norm is on the board of the Riverside Neighborhood Association and a member of the Gift Planning Committee of Princeton Medical Center Foundation. He is also active in an investment partnership and a member of a new group that meets monthly to discuss and debate the “great issues of the day.” Norm and Nancy have also been members of a reminiscence writing group and an ethnic dining group and are avid gardeners.
Norm and Nancy are quite fond of traveling. They have been to the United Kingdom (they particularly like to visit its great houses and gardens), throughout Continental Europe (particularly Italy, France, and Spain), the Baltic and the Black Sea regions, Turkey, Singapore, China, and elsewhere. For the last 40 years or so, Norm and Nancy have spent part of each winter on Barbados; they have quite a few friends on the island, both visitors like themselves and native Barbadians. Over the last 15 years, they have made a trek to Tucson each March to be with Norm’s high-school classmates. Norm and Nancy also take cruises from time to time, mostly round the Hebridean Islands and in the Mediterranean.
Norm and Nancy are consistent donors to Princeton Medical Center Foundation’s Annual Fund and have included provisions to the Foundation in their wills. They have also given to the comprehensive campaign for the new hospital. Why such beneficence to Princeton Health? “We think so very highly of the hospital, which we use from time to time. Quite simply, we think it critical that a community have a strong hospital. Our doctors and nurses have been superb. We are quite impressed by Barry Rabner [the System’s President and CEO] and have been well taken care of while in the hospital by Julie Mathew [who oversees the hospital’s Friends of the Foundation program].”
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