Jim Norton died peacefully in his sleep at Martha's Vineyard Hospital on Oct. 31, after a short illness. He was 93 years and 2 days old.
Born James Hoyt Knapp Norton at New Haven Hospital in Connecticut on Oct. 29, 1931, to Mariette Hoyt Norton (née Knapp) and Bayes Marshall Norton, Jim spent his childhood in Gambier, Ohio, where his father was a professor of physical chemistry at Kenyon College. The family moved to Pasadena, Calif., during WWII, while his father worked for the Office of Scientific Research and Development on the Manhattan Project. From there Jim traveled across the country to attend Phililps Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and then Yale University, where he was a member of the swim team, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in engineering in 1953.
His summers were always spent on the Vineyard, where his father was a ninth-generation Islander and his mother had grown up summering on East Chop. An avid sailor, Jim was fleet captain at the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club, teaching sailing and racing with his team, sailing to victory in the 1948 Sears Cup. (Later sailing adventures included winning the Fastnet Race in Europe.)
A chance conversation about Calcutta sparked Jim's interest in India, and the fall after his graduation from Yale found him at Oxford University studying Sanskrit. After his first term, he was called to serve in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. As a conscientious objector who refused to carry a gun, he was assigned medical duty, and spent the next 18 months serving in a burn unit at Fork Brooke Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. He then returned to Oxford on the GI Bill to complete his studies.
Wanting to continue his education, he applied for and received a Ford Foundation grant to study at the University of Madras in Madurai, India. His 1957 trip there was an amazing and sometimes hair-raising adventure overland through Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Iran, and Afghanistan. He loved his time in India, studying and developing relationships which he cherished for the rest of his life, while he gained an appreciation for India, its history, its music (including an impromptu concert by Ravi Shankar), and its many cultures.
After another adventure sailing from Mumbai to Africa, Jim was back in the U.S. studying at Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, where he met his future wife, Sonya MacDonald Spencer, singing madrigals in a campus choir. Married in September 1960, they moved to Wooster, Ohio, where Jim had taken a position teaching Indian Religions at the College of Wooster. They would spend the next 10 years in Wooster, welcoming their first three children, Sarah, Jamie, and Heather, and traveling back to the Vineyard each summer. While at Wooster, Jim created a study-abroad program, taking students and his young family back to India in 1966 and 1968 for the yearlong program.
After leaving Wooster, Jim taught briefly at Boston University and Oberlin College, where he and Sonya welcomed daughter Laura, before making the momentous decision to come to the Vineyard full-time and begin farming the land that had been in the family for generations.
To him, the farm was a puzzle that absorbed and engaged him, as he investigated ways to stop using pesticides, increase the farm's bounty, and save the crops from the deer, crows, and turkeys. His beloved tomatoes won many blue ribbons at the Agricultural Fair. "Our peas are in" meant the beginning of summer to many, and his goal was always to have corn by the Fourth of July. Still committed to education, he helped create the Nathan Mayhew Seminars, which allowed Islanders to get college credit while on-Island. He spent many years on the school committees of the Tisbury and regional high schools, championing steps forward in technology. He gave educational talks on an array of subjects around the Island, including at Vineyard Haven library, where he served on the board. He was encyclopedic on the history of the Vineyard, and the author of walking tourbooks guiding people around the historic buildings of Vineyard Haven. He also continued to write academic reference books on India.
A follower of Gandhi, Jim believed in the power of peaceful protest, and was active in the civil rights movement, antiwar protests, and calls for nuclear disarmament. He was an active member of Grace Episcopal Church, serving for a time as church warden. He was optimistic and tireless.
He loved gatherings and singing. Proud of his relation to turn-of-the-20th-century opera star Lillian Nordica (born Lillian Norton), he loved attending the Metropolitan Opera Live in HD at the M.V. Film Society, and will be remembered for his wonderful performances in Island Theater Workshop musicals and Island choruses. He had endless stories and a love of making connections.
He will be deeply missed by his family, including his four children and their partners and spouses (Sarah and Sid, Jamie and Dianne, Heather and Matt, and Laura and Charles), his five grandchildren (Dougie, Jonathan, Ben, Bayes, and Noah), and his nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his wife of 53 years, Sonya; and by his brother, Bayes.