On May 17th, Elliot Norton will be 100 years old. Retired in 1982 after 48 years of writing about theater for Boston newspapers and 24 years broadcasting on his WGBH television program and some 20 years teaching at Boston University, he now will celebrate his birthday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Last fall he moved to Florida after living for several years at an assisted living residence in Newton Corner. His move was intended to bring him to his son David’s area where they could see one another often.
Selfishly, perhaps, I regret this old friend’s moving away to a place where I cannot visit him. I would have much enjoyed being with him, celebrating his birthday, and talking about the old days. This I did when he was still in the Boston area.
Elliot Norton was my father’s best friend, the one who was with him on a visit to New York City when a sudden illness brought death to my father. My thinking about Elliot will always be connected with this fateful event of January 1954.
However, I also relish memories of Elliot’s triply distinguished career as journalist, television host, and teacher. I will always cherish the image of him as a tall, graying, somewhat formal gentleman who brought so much class to the often unmannerly newspaper business. In particular, I recall encountering him on the Watertown trolley one day in 1949 and having an extended conversation with him about my career plans.
How did it happen that Elliot has lived longer than almost every other of his contemporaries? Rare genes, it would seem, and a balanced life style. Studies of centenarians suggest that having many friends and a clear purpose in life counts for much. If so, then Elliot would certainly qualify.
About his friends, he loves to talk: I remember him telling me five years ago about Rodgers and Hammerstein and how he enjoyed being with them. But he knew just about everybody who figured largely in this country’s theater scene and many in Britain’s. Of all the great actors he saw, he considers Laurence Olivier the greatest.
His faith has remained important to him as well. Perhaps that is what has always enabled him to carry off his high level of success with such grace and a kind of humility.
As he celebrates his completion of 100 years, I join with his other friends and admirers in wishing him blessings and joy.
His old television home, WGBH, plans this month to show and repeat several times a ten-minute segment within its Greater Boston Arts in celebration of Elliot’s longevity. I have previewed the program and found fascinating the brief clips of him with the young Al Pacino, Ethel Merman, Jerry Lewis, and Neil Simon, among others.
I also want to take note here of another long-lived old friend, Henry Horn. This beloved Lutheran pastor is celebrating his 90th birthday this month and many people have joined in the observance.
Pastor Horn has had a distinguished career serving his church, not only locally, but across the nation as well. He is widely known as a writer, preacher, and seminary teacher.
Among American Lutherans he bears the unofficial title of “the dean of campus ministry.” For 25 years he served at University Lutheran (“Uni Lu,” as people call it familiarly) in Cambridge, where he ministered to students, faculty, and staff at Harvard and also involved himself deeply in the larger urban community.
He and his wife Catherine are the parents of ten children, all of them graduates of public schools, and each of them the holder of at least one university degree. The Horns also have 21 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Like many others among us, Henry Horn is now feeling some of the burdens of age. Caring for his spouse now looms large in each day’s agenda but he manages to exercise and to maintain his contacts in the community. His spirit of devotion to God and to other people make manifest a strength of character that wears well.
On the first weekend of this month, family members, members of his church, colleagues past and present, and other friends came together at Uni Lu in Pastor Horn’s honor. In prayer and festivity they gave thanks for the abundant years showered upon him. This birthday was a big event on many levels – family, church, and civic society – and resonated in the community.
Henry and I worked together for several years as fellow campus ministers. His spirit of ecumenism was such as to make me feel a strong bond with him and his church. Together, we tried to achieve a balance between change and continuity for the communities we served.
I feel myself blessed to have enjoyed the friendship of Henry Horn and Elliot Norton for so many years. Like others, I hope for them the blessings of long life and I thank them for the rich legacies they have already left to their family and friends.
Richard Griffin