Norman Ray Adams

Norman’s most recent occupation was a truck driver. He drove trucks delivering mail for 35 years. Before that, though, Norman held jobs as a machinist both in California and Colorado, but was let go due to downsizing. Norman wasn’t discouraged by this, but rather, used it as an opportunity to learn a new trade. Demonstrating his resiliency, he went to school for CDL after asking his wife if he was crazy for wanting to go back to school. With encouragement from his wife, Norman completed his new schooling, and earned more money as a truck driver than he ever made as a machinist.

Norman was also quite the woodsman, hunter, fisherman, and gunsmith. His children have fond memories of hunting and especially fishing. He was a skilled woodworker who carved and smithed two guns, one for himself and for his brother, John. He also carved animals out of wood, and even soap. He worked with leather and made a reversible purse for his sister Marion.

One of Norman’s favorite stories was about thinking for yourself: one day he was driving his friends around Alamosa in his Model T with a rumble seat (this was one of his favorite details of the story and a trademark of his great love for cars) and saw someone he knew jump the curb and drive on the sidewalk of the small town. Norman thought that it looked like good fun and decided to follow suit. No sooner than he had mounted the curb was he detained by the local sheriff and spent the night in jail. The next day he asked the sheriff if they had gotten a hold of his mother. The Sheriff said, “Yes,” and when Norman asked what she had said, the Sheriff answered, “She said ‘keep him.’”

At this point in the story Norman would always make a point about thinking for yourself and not doing things just because other people did.

Norman was a prankster almost to a fault. Whether it was telling his kids that the rabbit their mother had cooked for dinner was actually alley cat or sending Lennie into the house with a water snake for his youngest son Fred to play with to the horror of their Mother Ruth Ann. I’m sure his children can remember a time when he went deer hunting close to Christmas time, when he threatened to shoot Rudolph if he crapped on his roof. He proceeded to bring home a deer and proudly told the kids it was, in fact, the beloved reindeer. His nieces and nephews will remember phone calls from their self-styled “Uncle Icky” who always had a joke on hand to inspire laughs or groans depending on their quality (a tradition his son Lennie carries on proudly).

Norman loved expensive cars and was lucky enough in his later years to own a few. His big black Cadillac and Fire-Red Corvette were possessions in which he took great pride. For a man who spent so much of his life behind the wheel, he was all too tickled to own and show off the big black and little red “things” he had parked in the driveway.

Norman took great care with these vehicles, especially with his corvette, which sat a little too low to the ground to make going in and out of the driveway easy. He’d worked out a system of parking all his own, one that involved rolling into the grass of the front yard and several calculated angles all to save his red machine from scraping the curb.

But Norman will perhaps be best remembered as the man behind the wheel of the big white bus, carting the whole of the Adams clan (all 8 of them) from place to place. It might surprise you to know that this was not the first bus Norman had bought, acquiring his first for $200 which in those days was a lot of money. Norman did eventually trade up for the bus that looms so large in the memory of his children.

Norman was also an excellent cook whose “Wild Man” Chili, spaghetti, and burritos were among his family's favorites. But perhaps his most loved, and profitable recipe was his fudge. Ruth remembers an ill-fated attempt at fudge which resulted in a pudding-like substance that required a spoon, and rolling her eyes when Norman said that he would make the next batch. Much to her surprise, his addition of marshmallows and unique method of kneading his mixture by throwing it to the floor yielded a fudge that became famous at his place of work. The demand became so great that Ruth said they should have opened a shop called “Adams Candies.”

Norman was a religious man who studied the Bible and had verses memorized to call on in differing times of guidance and need. His favorite verse was John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” He made sure his heart was right with God so that his last breath on Earth was followed by his first breath in Heaven and would have wanted us to make sure that we did the same.

So what can we learn from Norman? How did he live his life? It is perhaps best summed up like this: Think for yourself, have a laugh whenever you can, and drive a cool car. I think that’s a philosophy we can all get behind. There are many stories and memories of Norman that each of you carry and will reflect on in the coming days. Whether that be his jokes, his cooking, his care, his inquiries about you, or his “love ya love ya” at the end of phone calls and family greetings. He will surely be missed.

Norman is predeceased by his mother:

Ingabord Catlin;

his siblings:

John Adams

Shirley Clutter

Delmer Adams

Marion Campbell and

Karen Muir

And his sons:

Clayton Adams and

Fred Adams

Norman is survived by his wife:

Ruth Adams,

His children:

Shelly Lewis

Lennie Adams

Bryan Adams and

Jennifer Smith,

His 11 grandchildren:

Joel Lewis

Nicholas Smith

Michael Smith

Winsome Lewis

Amber Smith

Tyler Adams

Matthew Smith

Ethan Adams

Brandon Adams

Connor Adams and

Grace Adams

And by his great grandchild:

Darya Baum-Flint