David C. Norris

The higher realms are in for a real treat with the entrance of David Charles Norris, who transitioned from the earthly world on the morning of March 19th, 2023. There's always a need, in any realm, for a gifted harpist and music in many forms will be infinitely richer through his presence and knowledge.

Music was always a special focus of David Norris' life, which began in Hammond, Indiana on February 12, 1938. As a young boy he used his earnings as a paper boy to take piano lessons. Before long his parents Marion (Norrie) and Helen Carstensen Norris and siblings Ruth, Terry, Janel and Coral Susan became aware that a budding musician was in their midst. When he realized Hammond High owned a harp, he began taking harp lessons at Lyon and Healy in Chicago. Then, as part of his military service, he was recruited to play the harp in the prestigious West Point Band and Orchestra.

To gain an insider's perspective for an early love of opera, David became a backstage supernumerary at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. Throughout the years, he was a tireless and adventuresome attendee of opera and concerts, and those fortunate to attend with him gained understanding and perspectives that infinitely added to the experience.

A professional career in architecture and design had its grounding in studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where the curriculum developed under German-born Mies van de Rohe was a premier training ground in modernist though and practice. While there, David joined in the company of Richard Nickel and John Vinci in documenting the quickly disappearing works of famed architect Louis H Sullivan. Together, they created documentary photographs, measured floor plans, prepared field notes and salvaged original elements on the eve of numerous demolitions. Most notably, they exhaustively documented and salvaged materials from the Garrick Theater Building- a major work by Adler and Sullivan that was one of Chicago's pioneering skyscrapers.

A wry sense of humor and quick wit was one of the defining characteristics of David Norris' personality. It effectively combined with his background in architecture and design during a period when he designed commercial displays for advertising and trade fair booths. The result were clever, eye-catching displays that never failed to educate and simultaneously amuse all who encountered them.

A long international career in architecture and design include extended periods living in Chicago, Hong-Kong and Germany, and finally in sharing a home of his own design with family in Kewanna, Indiana

Among David's many identities, being a much-loved uncle and grand-uncle could be counted as one of the very best.

Services were private.