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The passing of this incredible soul leaves a deep hole in the history and connection of the ���ϸ����� community

The ���ϸ����� community lost one of its most dedicated and engaged alumna on April 27, 2024, when Norma V. (Wright) Walker ’51 M ’59 went forth to serve a higher calling. Knowing Norma and her selfless love for the College’s older alums, I’m sure that’s exactly what she’s doing.

Norma learned her lessons in generous service on her family’s hard-scrabble farm in Hancock, NH. “We didn’t have much, but Grampa [Ephraim Weston] always shared a big Thanksgiving dinner with neighbors, friends, and family,” Norma explained. “Easter also found many at his table, which, on those occasions, were several tables pushed together and covered with sheets for tablecloths. We’d lay planks across chairs

so there was room for everyone. Those were special times in my life.”

Her Aunt Ellen [Agnes Ellen Weston], who graduated from Keene Normal School in 1918, was also a big influence in her philosophy of living and her alignment with ���ϸ�����.

“My grandfather and my Aunt Ellen believed in doing for people while they were alive, and this has made me go and visit alums who we might never know about and who are the history and foundation of the College.”

Visit, honor, and connect she did in various roles, including her tenure as a member of the Alumni Association Board of Directors. At one point, Norma noticed that the classes from the early ’20s didn’t have class secretaries.

Normal loved owls, of course.

So she asked the director at the time, Mike Maher ’72, if she could contact one of the classes. “Once I got started, it just sort of snowballed. In 1996, I noticed there were several alums over in Havenwood (a retirement community in Concord, NH), so I made arrangements to go have punch and cookies with them,” she recalled.

That effort snowballed, too, and Norma became the driving force behind the Golden Circle Society (alumni who graduated 50 or more years ago). She organized each of the Society’s luncheons, beginning with the first one in June 1997. The group has hosted nearly 150 luncheons since.

Former KSC staff member Amy Proctor ’13, who attended several Golden Circle luncheons with Norma, noted, “Norma always gives something to everyone who comes – it may be a hug, a flower, or something she made, but she always gives something. She never asks them for anything.”

“I really enjoy being involved with the Keene alumni,” Norma said. “I just wanted to reconnect people, so they’d know that Keene was >here for them, that Keene needed them, and they needed Keene. Keene was here because of them, and to me, this is important. Once you see the close interaction between people, it’s worth it. You watch people who meet at a Golden Circle luncheon, for example, >and haven’t seen each other for a long time, and the conversations and reunion that happen are wonderful.”

Besides stewarding the Golden Circle Society, she maintained a voluminous correspondence with classmates, alums, faculty, and staff. She called and visited College friends. Up until the very end, she was in Alumni Center office several times a week, sending out birthday and special- occasion cards and nearly 300 Christmas cards. She kept in touch with staff and alumni, worked on projects for such events as Reunion or Homecoming, and collected alumni news for ���ϸ����� Today.

Back in the early 2000s, Norma started collecting “memories,” mostly from Golden Circle alumni. She sent out a form that requested basic contact information and asked each recipient to describe a special memory of their time at the College (in those days, Keene Normal School or Keene Teachers College). She said, “I realized that we were losing so many of our older alums, and I thought it would be nice to get some of these tidbits recorded. A lot of them are personal, but they show some of the history of the College.…It’s really special.” A significant number of the responses were from people who attended during the ’20s. And many of the letters offered up interesting anecdotes that illustrated how different people experienced ���ϸ�����.

Norma at reunion.

Norma’s contacts with older alums proved invaluable when Professor Emeritus Lawrence Benaquist was filming Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve: The First Hundred Years of ���ϸ�����, the documentary honoring ���ϸ�����’s centennial in 2009. “Some of the most poignant parts of the film are captured in the charming stories and reminiscences that alums from the ’30s told of the early College years, and it was Norma Walker who gave us the access to those people,” said Dr. Benaquist.

Anyone who had the honor of knowing Norma Walker knows just how special she was – always ready to enhance someone else, never for personal accolade. As her daughter Jan Johnson said, “Mom did not like attention, and EVERYTHING she did was from her heart and because she believed in it or the person – she was remarkably selfless.” Her granddaughter Jessi described her as a ‘national treasure,’ and that couldn’t be more true.”

“Norma was a graceful and ever- present spirit at ���ϸ�����. Anyone who spent an hour with her was richer for it,” described KSC >President Melinda Treadwell ’90. “She embodied the teaching and learning that is the heart of our mission, vision, and values as a >College. We will miss her dearly.”

“Her dedication to the College and its alumni community is unparalleled,” said Sean Gillery ’89. “Norma’s care and concern for people was limitless – personally visiting with homebound alumni or writing hundreds of birthday cards and holiday letters each year, reinforcing the personal bond she felt with the College and its graduates. She was always willing to lend a helping hand, and her generosity of spirit knew no bounds. I join countless others who are deeply saddened by Norma’s sudden passing – such a tremendous loss for her family and friends and for ���ϸ�����.”

This anecdote from Andrea Vickers-Sivret ’01, KSC’s Director of Alumni Relations, deftly captures Norma’s importance to the College. “A few years ago, I brought my daughter into the office with me when I was working on the weekend. She loves to wander around looking at the pictures and artifacts that are spread throughout the Alumni Center. As we were leaving, she mentioned what an important person Norma is to the College. I agreed with her and then asked how she knew that.

She replied, ‘Well, the College used to be called Keene Norma College.’ I burst out laughing and knew she had seen the banner in the lobby for Keene NORMAL School. (She dropped the “L”). In that moment I thought, ‘That is so appropriate because Norma is the College, and the College is Norma.’

She embodied everything that makes ���ϸ����� special: dedication, selflessness, serving others. The year before Norma passed, she was setting the stage, making sure everything continued on as she had been dutifully serving her treasured Golden Circle alumni. She appointed an apprentice to take over the birthday cards and Golden Circle Guides to plan the luncheons.

It takes a team of people to assume the responsibilities that Norma did on her own. She was writing and sending out birthday cards up to her last day with us. There has never been and will never be another alumna as devoted to the Alumni Association as Norma was. She will be deeply missed.”

Norma Walker’s passing leaves a deep, deep hole in the life and culture of ���ϸ�����. The shoes she wore here are far too big and will take several people to fill. But I bet she’s filling new shoes now, moving on to embrace and delight in all those older alums and family who have passed on before her and who meant so much to her.

College archivist and Assistant Professor of KSC’s Special Collections, Rodney Obien, who had been working with Norma on a research project for the past year, noted that “Norma was the embodiment of the history and traditions of ���ϸ�����, and she really connected me to our past—to its life and spirit beyond just the facts and figures.”