In Memoriam: Professor Norman W. Thorson

• Publication year: 2021
• Citation: Vol. 83

83 Nebraska L. Rev. 295. In Memoriam: Professor Norman W. Thorson

295

In Memoriam:
Professor Norman W. Thorson

Harvey S. Perlman*

We all expect at some point to be called upon to eulogize a friend or colleague, but it is far too soon for us to be engaged in such an occasion for Norm Thorson. He died in the midst of his career, where his potential contributions were as substantial as his past ones. While his family and friends are most directly affected by his untimely departure, the law and the University of Nebraska College of Law incurred a loss as well.

Norm engaged in both the preparation for and practice of his profession at the University of Nebraska, where he received four separate degrees. As an undergraduate, he was a member of the Innocents Society and a Regent' Scholar. As a law student, he graduated Order of the Coif and was an editor of the Nebraska Law Review. He married his wife Toni, a law school classmate. On joining the law faculty, he became a widely recognized expert on the laws governing agriculture, the environment, water, and other natural resources. He was a good teacher, a published scholar, an active participant in the intellectual conversations at the College of Law and within the national academic community.

He came by his academic interests from being raised on a farm in Mead, Nebraska. He devoted his scholarship to areas that directly impacted farm families. He was particularly qualified to do so, given his background and his degrees in both agricultural economics and law. His writings became influential in many different spheres. He wrote the seminal book on Nebraska water law with Professor Richard Harnsberger and, with others, a leading textbook on agricultural law.

He was engaged in local as well as national issues. He accepted the position as the first Nebraska representative to the Low Level Radioactive Waste Commission and led a major project on water policy established at the direction of the Nebraska Legislature. He also served as President of the American Agricultural Law Association and

296

was a longtime trustee of the Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation.

Norm was a gifted teacher, a sound scholar, a good person. He was curious about things, like legal puzzles, as well as such matters as athletics and fine dining. He could become excited about ideas, passionate in arguments, but was always civil in discourse. His passions smoldered below the surface but could be ignited instantly by someone else' silly comment or irrational assertion. Yet, he was invariably constructive in his comments, often times searching for compromises, for middleground to bring contending forces together. He did that often within the councils of the law faculty and within the greater University when he served as President of the Academic Senate.

The University played a very central role in his life and he cared about its future. And in so many ways he played a central role in the life of the University and certainly in the lives of those of us who had the opportunity to be his colleagues.

We who knew him will miss him. Those who did not will miss him also. Nebraska' most pressing challenge is the management of its water supplies and the connected issues affecting agriculture, the environment, and the state' way of life. No one would have expected Norm to solve...