Norman Gerald Frazier

It has been a long hard-fought journey but with the grace of God, Norm passed on to His loving arms, Saturday, August 19, 2023.
Many, many thanks to the staff at Zion's Way Hospice - particularly, Michelle, Cassie, and Courtney. All had much love and compassion for Norm's journey. I will be forever grateful for their service and devotion to Norm's care.
Norm was born in 1944 at the French Camp Army Hospital in California during WWII. He moved to Texas at a very young age with his mother and lived various places in Texas, starting with being raised on a farm with his maternal grandparents, with no running water, electricity, or a car for the family. Where they were, there was no gas to be found due to the war. All farming was done by hand or animals. His best friend in 5th grade was Nortie White, Nortie and Norm were both in the Houston Boys Choir under Leopold Stokowski who was conductor of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Nortie and Norm both sang 1st soprano. They had to go to downtown Houston once per week to practice, which was held in the Houston Coliseum, home to the symphony orchestra. His favorite song performed was The Lord's Prayer what a beautiful piece.
He wound up in Houston as a teenager and learned how to shoot and hunt with his Uncle Hal and also developed a love for fast cars. Through a family friend Norm was hired at Hunt Wesson Foods Oil Refinery in Houston in a clerical position and also joined the Harris County Sheriff's Dept. He was so young looking that he helped out with drug buys, of course, to arrest the drug dealers. (He will come full circle after retirement from Hunt Wesson back to law enforcement) So he held down two jobs for a while. One of his assignments with the Sheriff's Dept was to be part of the escort convoy from Ellington AFB to the Johnson Space Center about 15 miles away. They actually escorted the Lunar Capsule, which was also loaded on a flatbed trailer and taken to JSC. Also, in the summer of 1969, sprint car races were held in the Houston Astrodome. Prior to the races, the drivers were to be driven around the track while sitting on the back of convertibles driven by deputies and introduced to the fans. He was assigned to drive one of the cars and Bobby Unser was one of the people in his car. Years later, he ran into Bobby in Pagosa Springs at the county fair and asked him if he remembered the event. Bobby recalled it in detail and they both got a kick out of running into each other 40+ years later.
In California between 1969 and 1972, he was promoted several times and gradually crept toward middle-management at Hunt-Wesson. It was both exhilarating and scary because of the lack of prior business experience. In 1972, he was promoted to a regional customer service manager job in Ohio. It was a very big promotion and transfer in that he had finally broken the shackles that had held him back for not having a college degree. With that promotion he was able to buy his first house with his first wife Alice and their two sons, a neat little 2-story house in the country town of Genoa, Ohio. After a few years he was transferred back to California at the Fullerton home office. There he was able to take his oldest out shooting guns and exploring. Norm and Alice divorced in 1976 and he met his second wife, Anne Marie, through work at Hunt Wesson. Norm left Hunt Wesson for a short time and worked at Berringer Winery in St. Helena Calif, as a Distribution Manager. He and Anne married in 1977 and moved back to the Fullerton area. He eventually took full custody of the two boys and had a third son with Anne.
After working at two other places as Distribution Managers he went back to Hunt-Wesson. In addition to being close to family, they were also close to the ocean, the mountains, and the desert. This meant time for guns and dirt bikes. All of the boys had a dirt bike or ATV, and we rode almost every weekend. Everything was so close. In the late 80's Anne became ill and shortly thereafter passed away.
Norm was promoted to work as an Industrial Engineer of sorts for the Wesson Oil business, Peter Pan Peanut Butter Business, Swiss Miss pudding and cocoa, and JHS ice cream toppings business working for the VP of those divisions. Through one of these assignments, Norm started working with Teri on a special project, started dating and the rest is history. Shortly after Norm and Teri were married, Keith the oldest son passed away from Lupus at a very young age of 26. The loss of Anne and now Keith in such a short period of time was very tough on everyone.
In 2000 both Norm and Teri retired from HW and moved to Pagosa Springs, Co and spent the next 11 years in "heaven" living in a house in the National Forest that Norm designed, and we had built. We met many wonderful people there. Norm started working for the Archuleta County Sheriff's Dept and Pagosa Springs Police Dept in their evidence area and after earning a certificate from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation became the CSI Tech for both depts. He was also involved in the Southwest Drug Task Force therefore coming full circle from Harris County. In 2010 a lung infection, not sure from the job or not, caused him to quit and we had to move out of that altitude and found ourselves in Saint George. Norm's health improved and he was able to "do" things again. We met very wonderful people, becoming involved in car clubs, gym "rats", election volunteers, Red Cliffs Rifle Association as RSO and did volunteer work with our church. After Covid hit and we stayed home, his health deteriorated again and never improved. Spent the last 8 months with Hospice help who were wonderful as well as support from our church, Southland Bible Church. Norm is survived by his wife Teri; two sons: Matt and Jeremy; as well as five wonderful grandchildren.
We will have a Celebration of Life service in the near future.