Norman was my father and I lived and travelled with him most of the years he was shooting in his return to photography, 80-89…. He was active as a photographer and many other baseball roles throughout his life.
He was born in 1916, indeed worked under George Burke in Chicago before the war, then joined the marines ‘42-44. In the early 50’s he was the general manager of several AAA teams and was PR man as well for several clubs in Iowa, as well as some long runs on radio as a “dj” with his own show in Iowa, and the grand ole opry. He also did extensive work for Topps and Leaf cards, writing many of their factoids, history, and stats for cards backs.
He later went back to what he loved, photography. He shot on large Graflex cameras and developed all his own film (usually in our hotel bathrooms which he converted to temporary darkrooms).
We spent our lives on the road almost constantly, often returning to Florida for spring training season. There was never a fixed address as we didn’t have a house! Me and my 2 sisters were born in the st Pete area, and Florida was usually the center of operations so hence the addresses you find there. Dad ultimately settled in Holiday Fla as he got too old to travel, where he passed at 88 years old in 2004.
His massive collection was lost, some through theft or swindle, as he got older. He eventually suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia and could not remember where his 100’ of thousands of cards, negatives, and memorabilia was (storage facilities in Florida most likely).
He was a friend to many of the old greats and as a child I was nearly always in the houses of old players, great and small, from Roy Campanella to Sparky Anderson etc. He was also co-author of a book with Bob Feller, and published several works of statistics and statistical analysis of the game, years before Billy Bean
12-07-2023, 07:58 AM
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