Jeff Norman

Remembering Jeff Norman, Big Sur's natural and cultural historian par excellence...

He was the best

Jeff and I first met when we were in the 7th grade in Pacific Grove - I remember it as my first "Sock Hop" and when JFK was assassinated. Then I moved far, far away. It was much later after I returned that I reconnected with Jeff. I was the librarian for the Carmel library's history room and I would help Jeff with research in exchange for hearing his wonderful stories. He always made me laugh - he was irreverent and I loved that!

Jeff has been supportive of all my research endeavors...

I was one of the fortunate students who got to visit Jeff at Alta Vista. Robert Alexander, teaching wilderness leadership classes at CSU, Monterey Bay, took small groups of us for weekend sojourns up the hill. Under the stars, Jeff would weave the stories of the history of Big Sur well into the night. 4000+ years in almost a single breath. His deep ecological understanding and his enthusiasm for the cultural history of the region will continue to inspire us to dig in to the special places we...

Jeff Norman was an amazing man, a rare specimen who taught through living by example.

I will cherish the memories I have of times spent with him at his beloved Alta Vista.

He spent time as if he had all of it in the world. He taught me about Big Sur's wonderful wild mushrooms and we shared some great meals from the bounty of our hunts which will never be forgotten.

Most importantly, Jeff welcomed my students from CSUMB and myself to his home, Alta Vista, to drink deep...

When longtime Big Sur rancher Don Harlan died, I remember Jeff telling me that Big Sur was reduced by Don's death. That is how I feel about losing Jeff. Jeff exemplified what is great about Big Sur. He was smart, self-sufficient, good at improvising, artistic, sarcastic, charmingly and slightly paranoid, funny, generous, community-minded and never pulled a punch. Whether discussing Jeffers, side-blotched lizards, firefighting, abalone recipes, or Trifolium species (which now, without...

Jeff and I shared a great interest in Big Sur flora and history - his professional, mine avocational. We began our friendship about 1981 after discovering this mutual interest and the fact that we were only 3 weeks apart in age. Over the years Jeff was one of my primary teachers. While I would sometimes stump him with a plant identification (leaving specimens on his windshield parked at the bottom of his walk-in route to Alta Vista) he always eventually found the answer. I think all would...

Dear Jeff, thank you for everything. For your heart above all -- and for your deep perception about the hearts and feelings of others. No one has ever known this coast like you have. In that great book of this coast which you are still writing, now that you have this sublime objectivity, you'll have no choice but to finally write a central chapter on one of the very most remarkable people ever to have lived here...yourself.