This
Month's Profile
Royal Norton
by Hilda Maston
Expert sound man, locksmith, and
chaperone -- only a few of the ways to describe Royal
Norton. Since the Nortons joined the church in
2000, Royal has been busy. Recently he re-keyed
all of the locks in the church. Every Sunday, he
runs the sound system and makes sure we can all hear
everything at the proper level. When asked about
the most challenging thing about working with the sound
system, Roy said, "Some people expect strange things
from the sound system."
One big job Roy did recently was to
accompany the teenagers on their trip to Hawaii as one
of the chaperones.
Royal was born in Wisconsin, a son of
Air Force parents. He lived in many places, went
to high school in Santa Paula, California, and attended
college at Ventura, Berkely, Santa Barbara, and North
Ridge in California. He attained bachelor's
degrees (Electronic Engineering/Computer Science) and
two master's (Electronic Engineering/ Computer Science
and Environmental Planning). Royal was an engineer
in the Civil Service from 1964 to 1999. There was
also a three-year time (1968 to 1972) when he was
evading the draft by serving in the Army.
In 1967 he married Carole Ann at Port
Hueneme, California, and started his family. They
have seven children: Grant, Ethan, Royalann,
Emily, Mary, Peter, and Michael.
Though retired from Civil Service,
Royal has been anything but retired -- along with his
valuable services to the church, he is also a professor
at Chapman University (which has a branch at Bangor and
Whidbey Island), teaching computer science.
Roy's favorite leisure-time activity
is sailing, though he says he doesn't have much time to
go out since retirement.
