Norman E. HART

HART, Norman E. 95, of Clearwater, passed away June 29, 2013, in a local nursing home following a stroke in 2012 that left him incapacitated. He is survived by Evelyn Routt Hart, his wife of 72 years. Also surviving him are sons, David (Elda) Hart of Clearwater and Daniel (Lorrie) Hart of Ocklawaha; daughters, Mary Ann Hart of Wauchula and Nancy Hart of Tallahassee; and a brother, Carl, who lives in Signal Hill, CA. Norman leaves behind seven grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren, three nieces and two nephews. Norman was born in Grayson County, KY, on July 29, 1917, and moved to Elizabethtown, KY, as a youngster. He attended public schools there and graduated from Elizabethtown High School. During World War II, he worked for the Curtiss-Wright Corporation as a mold loft draftsman helping to fabricate aircraft, particularly the C-46 Commando cargo plane that the company manufactured for the U.S. military. During this period, he worked at company plants in both Louisville and St. Louis. While in St. Louis, Norm completed night courses in electronics at Washington University. He returned to Elizabethtown after the war and in the early 1950s opened one of the first television repair shops in the state of Kentucky. In 1957, Norm and his family moved to Clearwater where he established a successful radio and television repair shop and operated it for nearly three decades. Many people remember "Hart's TV" because of its location on Greenwood Avenue directly across from the campus of the former Clearwater Junior High School. A number of high school DCT (a cooperative training program) students interned at his establishment during their half-days of training. Norman was honored by the school board for his contributions to this worthy program. Norm took up fishing and boating for a time in the 1960s and became an avid square-dancer in the '70s. His travels included trips to Europe, Panama and Alaska. He was very proud of having been commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in 1977 by the governor and secretary of state of Kentucky. Norm was a longtime licensed amateur ("ham") radio operator with a call sign of K4AKU, having been granted those call letters by the Federal Communications Commission in 1955. The family will receive friends Saturday, July 13th from 10 am to 11 am with a Memorial Service to follow at 11 am all at the Moss Feaster Funeral Home, Dunedin. www.mossfeasterdunedin.com.