And he's very proud of all the people that are here that have worked hard over the many years making it possible. So, it's about him, but it's really about the school and the community. So, thank you for being here, and I hope that you enjoy hearing a little bit about him. I like this. [Music] I'd like to introduce two people my family. First, my nephew, but my sister's son and our father's grandson. Now, I wanted to mention when Travis was about two or three, I saw him sitting on the floor and the TV was on. and his his grandparents were sitting on the sofa and Travis wasn't speaking full tenses or was really not talking much yet but he kneled and he started to try to interpret what the TV was saying and he was moving his little hands all around and it made no sense but his effort was beautiful I believe it try and sign in and speak.
[Music] So, like Kurt said, Travis, I'm not Kota, but I'm G Kota, right? My grandpa love to chat. My best friend is here because my grandpa made deep friends with him. They have a difference of 50 years between them but still uh my grandpa was uh able to tell stories, many many stories. Um uh the time he tried to tried to steal the rock at the death Olympics. So if you heard that story before, uh fascinating stories from the world's fair. Um and my my uh favorite is how he fell in love with my grandma. who's always always ch always. Growing up, when my family would arrive at their house, my grandpa would always be on the TTY or DRS talking with his friends, family, but he would always stop to play with me, with me and my sister. always except when football was on TV.
Me and my grandma love to watch the 49ers. His house. My grandma and grandpa had a sweet celebration. high five, kiss, and dance. Every time the 49ers uh got a touchdown, they would dance like they're 20 years old again. To many, my grandpa was a teacher, a coach, a mentor, a writer. But to me, he was a man that would put a little more sugar on your cereal, a little more butter on the toast. Encourage me to get the bigger stick with my grandma. and go to mass. [Music] I'd like to introduce another member of our family, Angela Norton. This is her name sign which is a good fit. Her grandmother is Nikki and my grandmother's sister. The two of them are sisters. Her last name is Norton, but it's not the name she was born with. It was uh Angela Harington, but a strange she married a man named Ken.
Oh no, I stole our story. Ignore it. I'm not here. I'm gonna go sit over here. Thank you, Kurt. Never ignore her. Yes. Hello, everyone. Thank you to my interpreters. My name is Angela Norton and I'm Ken's cousin. And it's my honor to be asked by Nikki and Kurt to be here today. And it's my privilege to be at this distinguished school. It's my pleasure to share my personal thoughts with you today about him. As I said, I'm Kenneth's cousin, but more accurately, my late mom and Kenneth were first cousins. My grandmother, my mom's mom, and Kenneth's mom, herself, the CSD alumni, were sisters and very close sisters all their long lives. The fact that one was hearing and the other was hearing impaired never got in the way of their special communication. My grandmother was widowed at an early age and always lived with my parents and me.
So whenever Aunt Anie came to visit us, I was treated to see firsthand their heartfelt sisterly bond and their lively animated conversations, fingers nimly flying through the air. And a huge part of those visits was the sharing of lots of pictures of Kenneth, Audrey, and their kids. I could see the love and the fun activities in the Norton household and I could see the pride in Annie's face in recounting all their accomplishments. I know my grandmother shared her sister's pride and I was so proud also to be related to them. Perhaps one of the biggest accomplishments accomplishments of Kenneth and his older brother Earl was that they were the first in our entire family to graduate from college university of course. In fact, not only were they the first, but they were the only college graduates in their generation of our family. The only two among 10 first cousins.
We all marveled at Kenneth's many triumphs at school, at sports, and in his career. He was very much admired and respected by us all. Other folks can share today with you Tenant's many accomplishments in academia and his with his professional achievements. And though I was never his student in class, I want to share with you what I learned from him. Kenneth had a love, one could say a passion for learning and he was tremendously generous in sharing his knowledge. His love of learning was infectious and I guess I got bitten by that same bug. Like Kenneth, I enjoyed researching and genealogy has become my hobby. Kenneth and I enjoyed comparing notes about our maternal family's shared roots in 19th century Bavaria and also in early pre 1906 first earth San Francisco now I must claim here equal time when it comes to researching I didn't limit my study to only my side of the family I spent a lot of time researching my husband's family too here it's a coincidence let you out the My husband's name is indeed Ken Norton.
And in doing research, I found out the connection goes much deeper than merely sharing the same name. It turns out that both Kenneth and my husband can trace their fraternal roots to the same original immigrants from England to Martha's Vineyard and the Massachusetts colony. The Nortons were among the first settlers there in 1640. and both of their Norton lines eventually relocated to Maine after the Revolutionary War. Now, imagine the state of Maine in the early 1800s. Raw, wild, largely undeveloped, subject to fierce winter weather. No wonder we get the term Yankee ingenuity from those undaunted pioneers. Resourcefulness, adaptability, inventiveness. These are all qualities which describe Kenneth. Whatever the newest technology, from TTY to iPads to the most sophisticated computer setup I've ever seen, he mastered it all. Not only did he have the intelligence and capability to tackle any challenge, he personified the bravery of his New England ancestors.
The other great lesson I witnessed from Ken was his ability to express deep emotion. I marveled at his ability to communicate with clarity and precision. I felt the joy he exuded when he lifted a glass to do to toast Nikki and Gary at their wedding. And I felt the deep the depth of grief when he eulogized his son Dne. Such true feelings. so profoundly expressed. The oral spoken word was never needed between us. We knew there was love. And if you were lucky enough to be the recipient of one of his all-enveloping bear hugs, I'm sure you felt that love, too. The author Tom Brokoff wrote of the greatest generation. Kenneth was the last of his very great generation in our family, our patriarch. Thank you, Kenneth, for sharing your warmth, your wit, and your wisdom with us. We, your children, your grandchildren, your great grandchildren, your whole family.
We will be forever grateful for teaching us how to live a beautiful and fulfilled life. Thank you. Ken Norton spent over many years at Cal School for the Deaf as a young boy. Now during those days there was no Bay Bridge. He took the ferry every week back and forth from San Francisco to Berkeley so that he could attend school because legislators refused to build a tower to house our bell. He helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars to build the bell towers that you can see to this day. And the name of people that contributed to that bell tower. It's a little a little funny. That's how me use the word cool often because that's how I say that's cool. This is cool. About eight months ago, he said, "You know, Kurt, I want to start using cool. Tell me how." I thought, "Well, okay." So, we practiced the same thing before and I saw him using it a few times.
It was a little awkward, but it seemed to fit in that way in some strange way. The reason I bring up the word cool is because when my brother and sister and I were little and we would play at the school back when it was in Berkeley back in the 60s, There was what we now call the California cool era. The next two speakers are part of the original California cool. They were great athletes that my brother and I would watch play. They were like movie stars to us. If you look in the program there on the back, you'll see a picture of my father with three of his athletes. One of them is Ken, who's coming up next. The other is Jim Davis, who's also here today. He's over there on the right. The other one's online. Those three were really cool guys. In addition, Mel's older brother was also the OG cool guys.
So, I'm glad to introduce the two cool guys. Hello and good afternoon everyone. This is that's Mel and I'm Ken and really happy to be here to celebrate Kim Morton's life. We have a really good relationship. Long time 63 years. We have a special bond. It feels inspiring. really have him have my coach. Now, I wanted to recognize my daughter Sabana and her husband and their baby Finley and daughter Karina, husband Rory, with baby Lennox. They're all here up here in the back to celebrate with us. And my wife stayed home. She's watching us live stream right now. So, they're all celebrating with us. We're all here in spirit. When I was a senior, I was on the football team. At that time, Ken was a new coach. I didn't know who this guy was. I knew his brother Earl. I've met him on a few occasions.
But then when we got to school, started training, I decided that football wasn't for me. I played for three years and we won two games, lost 22. That seems like a good time to be out of it. and he kept going as who's the quarterback here. They all said his email was a linebacker. So they all end up coming to the gym where I was and taking me out back to football practice even though I quit. Ken Norton said, "Okay, I I said to I know your brother Earl, but I played for three years and I'm tired of football. I will lose him. And if you really want me, I'll come back on the team. He shared his rules. Who comes first? You have to get good grades to stay on the team. You have to have a good attitude. Show team spirit have the enthusiasm to always do what you need to do.
And so we came back on the team. We had a couple weeks of training and we played at the first game. and we lost again. 12 to 13. Ken said, "No, don't worry about it. Keep practicing." Then we played Half Moon Bay, which is a big school that had always beat us. This time we beat them 26 to 14. The third game was St. St. Vincent. And we ended up that year with a record of five and three, which was better than I'd ever had in my previous years. And that was all because Ken was such a great coach and his ability to to coach us very clearly in ASL. and I had the good fortune to stay in touch with him afterwards. And even though I went away to college, I came back raise my family and also stay in touch with Ken. And then I volunteered to work at the museum like 15 years or so.
and Kim would always be there helping us add to the museum, add research, add add documents to our museum. He also worked hard to help us renovate the museum. But then he he started coming less and less physical and he wasn't up to it. as I go over to his house and help him with the yard, cleaning, whatever little things he needs me to do, go out shopping for him, help pick up his medicine, that kind of thing. Eventually, he wanted to wanted to sell his house. He decided he wanted to move into an apartment. It was over near Kaiser. He gave me a key so I could just show him anytime during the day or night when he might need something a call and I'd be over there in a flash. If I go on vacation, he'd still be in touch. We'd text each other.
My wife would go over, have lunch with him. We go out and do stuff out around town. It got to a point where he felt like he was ready to go. But I, you know, he was in such pain. There's not much I can say against what he had in mind. So I went over and I was there for three hours. We all we just talked about the good old days about the about the football team, about the school, about the museum and I gave him a hug. Goodbye. I wish you luck and hello. In 1961, when Ken Norton moved to California from Oklahoma, the school was super excited. I mean he was a graduate from Berkeley in 1945 and then he's come back to the old school as a teacher and half a day in the morning he would teach class and then half the day in the afternoon he'd be coaching.
He had a special position position which was really nice. He's super lucky. And then one day I was curious to go watch Ken Norton in action in a football game and watch him coach. And also my brother was a quarterback so I wanted to go watch. I'm like wow that's Kim Norton. He was good and the way he communicated the drills and the practices was beautiful, fascinating. I was like, "Wow, I want to play for him." And then one day I was walking down the hallway and I bumped into Ken. This was his sign name back in the day. And I was like, "Oh, you're Ken Norton. You're Martin." He's like, "Yeah, yeah." I was like, "Hey, I have the same name. I'm Ken." And he's like, "Really?" I said, "I know. We have the same name." And he's like, "Who are you?" I was like, "My brother's a photograph." He's like, "Oh, he's your brother." I'm like, "Yeah." He's like, "How old are you?" I said, "13." And he's like, "Okay, well, in two years, you're going to play for me." And I said, "Oh, yeah.
I will. I love sports." Well, then two years later, I entered high school and played football, basketball, and track. And Kent was just outstanding. I mean, he has such a good philosophy. He gave good advice, good you uh word usage, and and just the way he communicated with us. I I played so well. Then in springtime, 1964, I was a rookie that year. I was pretty good at track. At that 800 yards, I won every single match. First place, Ken Norton saw me. He knew that I was really good at track. He knew I was strong and determined and I had the will to win. So Ken said, "Hey, why don't you try out down in Riverside for the Death Olympics?" And I was like, "Oh." And I was 16 at the time and I was like, "Should I?" My brother's like, "Yeah, let's go.
I'll drive." So, we drove down to Riverside. And there was about 12 liners. I looked around and they were all college level men, like college graduates. And I looked around. I'm like, I was the only 16-year-old, the only kid. I was completely nervous. And uh we're getting ready to run the two laps and I start to go off and and I mean, we were huddled. like we were all together. But then all of a sudden we started to spread up and there was this runner that was in front of me that was in first place and I almost beat him but I played second. But then I ended up being on the USA team, the top three. You have to be on the USA team and I made the team. And I was super excited and Ken said, "I knew you could do it." I was confident that you could do it.
Ken was just was wonderful. He inspired me that following summer in 1965 for the Olympics at Washington DC. Um, and it was over at the University of Maryland. Went over there for practice for about two weeks and it was with Jen Davis and Don Lions. We were all the runners there and we're practicing and then we had to do another track meet. Uh, there was another some other guys that didn't go to the tryyouts yet for the one that held in Riverside. So, there was about seven or eight of us. And then that day I just kind of just fell off like I I I played sport. I mean, I I couldn't run in the death Olympics. I was like, "Huh, what what do I what?" Ken said, "You know what? No, hold on." He looked into some information and he found a long jump that was available.
Hadn't had any competition there. And I said, "Why don't you try that out?" I said, "Okay." And I was a kid at jumping at the time. So, I started practicing. I played second. And then I ended up on the USA team anyway. I was super lucky um that I was able to win a medal or to run to win a medal. and we competed and I placed fifth. Ken Horton looked at me and he said, you know, he was like, "Okay, come on. Keep it up." And I said, "Okay." So, the last jump, the very last jump, I jumped, landed, placed third, got a medal, won by half an inch and I won a medal. I a bronze. I was thrilled. Ken Norton, he was the best coach I ever had. And again, in the 69 Olympics, I got another third place medal with Kim Norton.