Frank Norton

Frank Norton - ST. SIMON'S ISLAND - Frank Norton, 65, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran who went on to key roles on the staff of the U.S. Congress and in government consulting, died on June 30 while on vacation with his family in Highlands, NC. The cause of death was believed to be a heart attack. Mr. Norton was a partner in the firm of Hurt, Norton & Associates, an 11-member Washington-based company that he co-founded in 1997 and helped develop into a major corporate consulting, lobbying, and marketing firm with more than 45 clients nationwide. A resident of St. Simons Island, GA, Mr. Norton was born in Waycross, GA, on May 20, 1943, the son of Frank Norton Sr. and Margaret Crawley Norton. He graduated from Emory at Oxford College and Emory University in 1966. He had planned to attend law school, but was drafted into the Army. He excelled in his training, was commissioned through Officer Candidate School, and served as an Army Ranger instructor before assignment to Vietnam as a Ranger reconnaissance platoon leader with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He holds more than nine military decorations, including the Purple Heart and three separate awards of the Bronze Star for Valor in combat. Mr. Norton went on to a series of Army Infantry assignments alternating with tours in the Army's congressional liaison offices in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. A Master Parachutist, his assignments were generally Airborne and Ranger units and with assignments at Fort Benning and Fort Stewart, Georgia, and Fort Ord, California. In addition to Vietnam, he served overseas in the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Korea. While in the Army, he also earned a Masters degree in Business from Central Michigan University and a Masters degree in Congressional Studies from The Catholic University. He was a graduate of the National War College. At the time of this retirement from the Army as a Colonel after 26 years of service, he was Principle Deputy to the Secretary of the Army for U.S. Senate Liaison. He was the only Army officer to serve in that position for both the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, a post that required him to be the Secretary of the Army's direct representative to the Congress. He travelled throughout the world with Senators and Representatives on Army issues. After his retirement from the Army in 1993, he was appointed by U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia, then Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to serve as a Professional Staff Member on the committee. He also served as the Senator's liaison to Georgia military bases and committees during the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. In 1997, after Mr. Nunn's retirement from the Senate, Mr. Norton co-founded Hurt, Norton & Associates with his long-time friend Robert Hurt. He helped preside over the firm's steady growth into a broad-based consulting company with extensive work in national defense, homeland security, transportation, technology development, higher education, and corporate services to government agencies. In recent years he had moved from Washington to St. Simons Island. He continued his consulting work, but increasingly devoted time to his family farm in Waycross, to real estate development in Glynn County, Georgia, and to charitable and other community service in Waycross, Brunswick, and St. Simons. He and his family are members of the St. Simons United Methodist Church. He is survived by his beloved wife, Carol Keatley Norton, and his son, Lee Crawley Norton of St. Simons Island; and cousins Jane and Jerome Crawley of Waycross, GA, and Al Trogdon of Dover Bluff, GA. Funeral arrangements will be handled by Edo Miller & Sons Funeral Home, 3321 Glynn Avenue, Brunswick, GA 31520-4400, (912) 265-3636. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the St. Simons United Methodist Church or Oxford College of Emory University. Savannah Morning News July 2, 2009 Please sign our Obituary Guest Book at savannahnow.com/obituaries .