PROGRAMS:

COMPANIES:

• Glenn L. Martin
• Martin Marietta

LOCATIONS:

Middle River, MD

POSITIONS:

Aircraft Mechanic, Assembler & Installer

COMMENTS:

James H Norton Jr. was born November 28, 1909 to James H Norton Sr. an antique train restorer for the B & O Railroad (now CSX) and Daisy M Norton, a homemaker and mother of five in Waverly community in Baltimore, MD. Jim fell in love with flight when Charles Lindbergh came to Baltimore for a parade celebrating his pioneering first transatlantic flight in May 1927. Jim missed getting his autograph by the police officer shooing him away from the parade, but seeing Lindbergh and his success were pivotal in Jim’s life and launched his dream career. In 1928, Glenn L Martin moved his company to Maryland. In 1932 the stars aligned and James went to work for Glenn L Martin July 7, 1935.

He worked on many “ships’ from the B26 Marauders, flying boats PBM Mariner, Mars Transport to the Viking, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, LEM and the “lifting body”, a model for the Space Shuttle. He received a deferment from the War Department because he was the ONLY one Glenn L Martin said who could make the gun turrets work!

The Space Race was the highlight of the 1960s in our home. We were surrounded by living the 60’s history of Camelot in the White House with the Kennedys, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cold War escalation, Air Raid drills, diving under school desks and building bomb shelters or locating the safest place to be if a bomb was dropped, the Berlin Wall being erected, JFK’s Assassination, Civil Rights and Martin Luther King’s assassination, Vietnam, Women’s Rights, Woodstock, RFK’s Assassination, lowering the voting age in response to the Vietnam War protests, Rock and Roll, the British invasion, hippies and the drug culture. Despite all that, at dinner Dad talked about the Space Race.

Every Martin’s Space worker was interviewed by the FBI to determine their perspective and “fitness” to participate in the Space Program deemed by John F Kennedy to beat the Russians to the Moon by the end of the decade. Dad told us his response. Other than his brother, Earl, who served in WWII as a medic and made 14 glider runs to Normandy on D Day, Dad said the astronauts were his greatest heroes because they were putting their lives on the line for outer space and this country.

His part in the Space Race would outlive him. From Mercury, Gemini and Apollo to the Space Shuttle, Dad had a contribution in all of it. While Dad was working on the Gemini Destruct Box, John Glenn stood behind his work area watching him. The Destruct Box held the controls that would catapult the astronaut off of the rocket and return him to Earth, if there is a disaster in Space. Feeling his eyes on Dad’s back, Dad stopped what he was doing to ask if the soon to be astronaut had any questions. John Glenn said, “I just want to watch your work because you are going to save my life!” That said it all to Dad. He had another man’s life in his hands in all he was doing. Dad never lost that sense of responsibility and was reflected in his pride in all his work.

When the Berlin Wall was begun in August 1961, the Pentagon had its budget curtailed under fear of another war. However, John Glenn still went into orbit February 20, 1962 making history and NOT using the Destruct Box.

As the different Space programs evolved, Dad saw many astronauts in the White rooms and training. Dad said since the tests made them so sick, he would take care of their safe flight!

His boss told him one day to take that set of blueprints and the pile of wood to make a model of what would become the Lifting Body. This new form of space flight would take off on a rocket and return to Earth like a jet. Imagine that….he made a model for what became the Space Shuttle.  Creativity, responsibility and thoroughness highlighted his efforts complimented by patriotism. Martin Marietta recognized his abilities perhaps more than his modesty would allow him to see.

When we watched Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon July 20, 1969, Dad pointed out he worked on the control panel and the gold feet on the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) Neil Armstrong flew. The simulator LEM was built in Martin Marietta’s Middle River’s B Building and used for training.

Jim Norton retired February 1, 1976 proud of his contribution to flight, the war effort, his country and most of all the Space Race. In the late 1990s, walking with me and his grandchildren in the Air and Space Museum on the Mall in Washington DC, he could see his life’s work starting from that first successful transatlantic flight, the Spirit of St Louis as his inspiration through the Space Program artifacts that he helped create.

He never saw the American Space Museum and Space Workers Walk of Fame though the RAMM retiree meetings that he attended monthly had the information. He told me about the monuments and I knew I had to recognize his efforts. He never felt right about the War Department Deferment for WWII because his brother went even though he had a baby. The Space Race was my Father, Jim Norton’s Patriotic contribution to this country.

The Gemini monument was the first one I put his name on. I took my family to see it and made a rubbing. We framed the picture of the monument for his room. It was with him until he died. He made the nurses keep the area in front of it clear. He died looking at that picture February 25, 2004. His name is on the other monuments as well. Now future generations can learn of his contribution and his legacy will live on.

What a Wonderful Life recognized as well as all the others who contributed to the Race to the Moon.

JAMES H NORTON’S GLENN L MARTIN ID BADGE 1935

James H Norton Jr’s Glenn L Martin ID Badge July 7 1935

JAMES H NORTON’S GEMINI PRODUCTION TEAM BADGE

James H Norton Jr’s Gemini Production Team Badge June 8, 1964

JAMES H NORTON’S GEMINI PRODUCTION TEAM WATCH GEMINI IV

James H Norton Jr and Gemini IV Production team watch Gemini IV lift off June 3, 1965

JAMES H NORTON BUILDING LIFTING BODY MODEL