Jan A. Norton, beloved husband, father, grandfather, great grandfather, brother, and uncle, passed away on April 9th 2024, surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Warsaw, Poland shortly before World War II. His family survived the war, and after a decade of being separated, were reunited by his father in Canada.
Jan served in the Royal Canadian Air Force Reserve, graduated from University of Toronto first in his class of engineers and was awarded the Professional Engineers Gold Medal. His first summer after graduating he worked at AVRO Aircraft on the ARROW supersonic fighter. He went on to be recruited for his PhD by Princeton University. During his time at Princeton, at an off-campus event, he met his future wife, Maggie.
During his second year at Princeton, Jan won a national Bell Telephone Laboratories Fellowship for his third year of studies. That summer, his job at Bell Labs was working on the first satellite communications experiment: Project Echo. While still working on his thesis he got an offer from Bell Labs to join their control systems group, and started to work on TELSTAR, a satellite capable of live TV transmission between the USA and Europe. This project took Jan and his new wife to Brittany, France during the first year of their marriage where Jan worked on the 380-ton ground station antenna under a 210-foot diameter radome.
Over the course of almost 40 years with Bell Labs, AT&T (later Lucent Technologies), he spent his time doing and managing many leading-edge projects in control systems, computer systems and business competitiveness.
He designed and oversaw the building of the home he moved his young family into in 1973, where he continued to live with his wife until cancer stole him too soon. In 1976 Jan built a log cabin in the White Mountains with his brothers-in-laws where he hiked and enjoyed the mountains with his family for decades.
After his retirement, Jan and his wife, traveled extensively across the United States and Canada. He took great pleasure in planning their itineraries and exploring new places including many National Parks.
Jan was a man of great integrity. He was an unprecedented combination of goodness and intellect, a devout Catholic, and a dedicated family man. He had a great sense of humor and a love of fun. Words fail to express how good and capable he always was, always willing to come to the rescue of those who needed help. He would pack his tool kit and be out the door in an instant. He used his intellect to make the world a better place. He was a tremendous man wherever he went and in whatever he did, but never more so than when he was together with his family, that he loved so dearly.
He is survived by his wife of 62 years, 3 daughters, 4 grandchildren, 5 great grandchildren, his sister, and 7 nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his parents, eldest daughter and one niece.
Visitation will be held Wednesday, April 17th, 2024, from 4 to 7 PM at Thompson Memorial Home, 310 Broad Street, Red Bank, NJ.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday, April 18th, 2024, at 10:30 AM at St. Catharine’s Church, 108 Middletown Road, Holmdel, NJ.
Burial will be private.
