Tribute to Kenneth W. Norton at CSD Fremont
Sam Sepah: Hello! I’m Sam Sepah. I’m here to be a guest reporter for “The Daily Moth.” I’m here at the California School for the Deaf, Fremont, in the Bay Area in Northern California. There are many people here to honor Kenneth Walters Norton.
[Image of a program booklet showing a picture of Kenneth Walters Norton, 1926-2025]
He was born in 1926 and died in 2025. He was 98! He is a well-known Deaf advocate and dean of students. He started his career as a teacher at the California School for the Deaf, Berkeley before it moved to Fremont. Norton later became an administrator and after he retired, continued to come here and interact with Deaf people and was a mentor, coach, and he had so many different roles in his life. We will film some of the events here and talk with some in his family and community.
[Video clips from the Celebration of Life livestream, provided by CSD Fremont]
Ken Norton, signing in a video: In 1961, I went back to Berkeley and taught there. I later became the Dean of Students and retired in 1990. I’m always connected with CSD, my beloved school.
Video clip from the livestream, showing Nikki Norton-Rexroat (Daughter of Ken Norton): It feels so strange and sad to be here on the stage. I grew up always watching my dad be on a stage in front of an audience signing, giving a lecture, encouraging people, inspiring people.
[Video clips from the livestream, showing a young Ken Norton, him in the 1970s and 1980s as a staffer]
Video clip from the livestream, showing Kurt Norton (Son of Ken Norton): The love (Ken) told us about, mostly in the last years of his life, was a transformation from his saying that “Being Deaf doesn’t bother me” to “I love being Deaf.” That made a lot of sense because in his life, you can see why he felt that way. He knew he was a very lucky person.
[Video clips from the livestream, showing the quote, “Once An Eagle, Always An Eagle.” There is a photo of Ken Norton standing in front of the Bear Hunt statue]
[Video clip showing a zooming shot of the Bear Hunt statue today]
Amy Novotny, CSDF Superintendent: Hi, I’m Amy Novotny, Superintendent at CSD.
Sam Sepah: What is Ken Norton’s legacy here at the school?
Amy: Ken’s legacy is enormous. The first thing that comes to my mind is his heart for students. He believed students came first. All of his work and how he shared his messages to the next person or to the next staffer always came back to what was in his heart, that it was all about the student. It’s the student first. His legacy will continue here at CSD.
[Video clip showing a neon sign with the words, “Student Life: California School for the Deaf”]
Len Gonzales, Dean of Students: Today, the Student Life program at CSD is very strong because of how Ken Norton instilled the foundation of leadership, empowerment, and other ideas where students could learn. It’s not just about the classroom, as there’s the after school activities and the nighttime. There are many long hours with our student life staff. Ken started that tradition and we’ve only become stronger, with technology and more ideas, we’ve carried on. We are grateful to Ken Norton.
[Video clip from the livestream, showing Ken Norton on a football field, doing a coin toss as a honorary captain]
Kurt Norton (Son of Ken Norton): Today, we are honoring my father, who died on January 7, 2025. He lived until he was 98 years old and CSD Fremont was his second home. We are gathered here to honor him.
Sam: What led him to decide to end his life? Was it because of healthcare?
Kurt: It was more about quality of life. His pain was really horrible to deal with. His doctor told him that he had outlived their ability to help him.
Sam: Oh, wow.
Kurt: He understood that there was a limit to what medicine could do for his pain. He didn’t want to live his life on a bed. He did not want to have his health decline to where he had to be fed and lose his ability to make a connection to the world. So he decided to go out on his own terms.
Sam: Was it hard to choose another country to do this? As a Deaf person, if I stayed in the U.S., I would have better access?
Kurt: The U.S. doesn’t allow you to end your life because of pain. If you have a terminal illness, then you can do it here in California, as it is allowed. But it’s not allowed for reasons of pain.
Sam: Interesting.
Kurt: There’s just one country that allows this, Switzerland. They have allowed (assisted suicide) for the last 100 years. Switzerland is very advanced. So we communicated with them and we found the right organization to work with. They prepared everything. My father was their first Deaf “client.” I don’t know if that’s the right word, though!
Sam: Did Switzerland provide satisfactory services?
Kurt: Oh yeah! They did really well. They were very sensitive. We had several Zoom chats with doctors in Switzerland and they understood how to communicate with interpreters, how to communicate directly with my father, instead of doing it through me or hearing people. They were locked in on him.
Sam: That’s wonderful.
Kurt: I was surprised. Switzerland is a really enlightened country.
Sam: Yeah. What’s something that you want the audience to know about your father?
Kurt: I think that he would want to tell all the Deaf students in the U.S. that they can really do almost anything you want if you are willing to work hard and not allow other people to stop you or put barriers on you. The world really has to change by the assertiveness of Deaf people. He believed that.
Sam: That’s so wonderful to inspire others. Thank you, Kurt!
[Video clips from the livestream, showing Ken Norton being surprised and grateful at an art memorial set up that shows his likeness, on the wall of a CSD Fremont building. Ken says he’s speechless and that it’s the biggest surprise he’s got.]
Sam: If Ken had better access and support system, would that make him decide not to go forward to end his life, or does that not matter? What do you think?
Nikki Norton-Rexroat: No, because his arthritis was so severe that it caused him so much pain. He did research for many years on various options. He tried many different things. He asked for a new hip several times but he couldn’t find a doctor who would be willing to do it at his age. His doctor tried to do research on specialists in hip replacement surgery but nobody would do it because of his age. He also used a lot of medicine, which helped reduce his pain, but the pain would just continue to increase in severity and it was just not helping anymore. He couldn’t take it.
Sam: So, when you look at Ken’s life, how do you think it impacts the new generation? What do you see?
Nikki: Wow. That’s a big question! I’m happy to see a new generation of leaders. There are so many people in this new generation who knew him, learned from him, and are carrying his legacy. I’m really inspired to see that. I know that my father always wondered about the future of CSD, on whether it would continue to exist, on whether the Deaf community would continue to exist. What’s the future? Today, as I look around and see people here, I know that this future will continue.
[Video clips from the livestream, showing Ken Norton in pictures with various people in the CSD community]
Sam: It’s so inspiring to see many stories shared at his memorial service. His story goes way back to his young days at Gallaudet College, which was in the 1950s, to the time he worked at the Oklahoma School for the Deaf, to when he moved to the Berkeley school, there are so many stories. He took a key role to help move the school from CSD Berkeley to CSD Fremont. He went through so much in his life. It was not just in the Deaf community and education at school, but he also had a personal life. Remember that he was born in 1926, during the Great Depression. He went through the WW2 era, the Cold War era, the technological revolution, so he saw so much in his life, in two parallels. He had so much impact on students. You can see from the interviews with his family, his two children Kurt and Nikki, and their remarks on how Ken was such a gentleman but had his struggles as a Deaf senior citizen. With healthcare - he had access to interpreting, yes, but was it perfect? Absolutely not. His struggles with pain — like what his family said — the pain was intolerable and it’s what led him to decide to go to Switzerland to end his life. That’s still defined as a very good life. His honor is still enshrined here at the California School for the Deaf, Fremont as a guide to his legacy.
[Video clip showing a sign in front of the Ken Norton memorial at CSDF. It reads, “Kenneth W. Norton. Student, Alumni, Staff, Coach, Administrator, Retiree, Contributor. San Francisco - Berkeley - Fremont. The Eagle Soars to Enlightenment.]
[Video clip showing the Kenneth Norton memorial, with two art pieces showing the outline of his young face and his older face]
[End of video]
***Special gratitude to Sam Sepah for volunteering to cover this story and to Ron Bye for helping with filming.
Livestream on CSD Fremont’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF1gZKr90V0&t=2388s