Longtime music teacher, band leader dies

Bob Norman made music in Santa Rosa for decades as a high school band instructor, musician and longtime bandleader.

Norman, whose bands regularly played at the county fair and who led backup bands here for Steve Allen and the Temptations, died Thursday at his home in Santa Rosa. He was 74.

"He helped shape the lives of a lot of professional musicians," said Carl Vast, a professional musician who lives near Healdsburg.

Born Robert Hammond Norman Jr., he combined his music performances with 33 years as a public school teacher and counselor.

A native of Oakland, he grew up in Santa Rosa and in 1952 graduated from Santa Rosa High School. After serving in the U.S. Army and playing in military bands in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., he graduated from Santa Rosa Junior College and San Francisco State University.

In the 1960s, he became the band director at Montgomery High School. Friends and family recall him preparing talented marching bands and a smaller jazz/rock ensemble that played nationally televised games for the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors.

"I think one of his biggest contributions was as an educator," said William Williams, the longtime director of the Santa Rosa Symphony's Preparatory and Discovery orchestras for youth.

In 1972 Norman earned a master's degree from Sonoma State University and became a school counselor, first at Ridgway Continuation High and later at Santa Rosa High.

"He was very dedicated and devoted to his students," said his daughter, Lisa Freeman of Medford, Ore.

On many days, his daughter recalled, Norman would come home from his school job, take a brief nap and prepare for an evening music gig.

His Bob Norman Band and Bob Norman's Dixieland Band played all sorts of venues, from the county fair to the former Los Robles Lodge and El Rancho Tropicana hotel.

Norman for years led the band for the annual Sonoma County Junior Miss pageants and last year was inducted into the group's Hall of Fame. He also appeared as the bandleader in the 1975 movie "Smile," a satire on beauty pageants and Middle America that was filmed in Santa Rosa.

Norman served 10 years as president of the American Federation of Musicians Union Local 292. During that time, he helped win federal funds for the training of young musicians.

When entertainer Steve Allen appeared in 1982 at the newly opened Burbank Center for the Arts, now the Wells Fargo Center, Norman directed the 15-piece band.

He later led bands there for the Temptations and the Ink Spots, his daughter said.

Along with his daughter, he is survived by two sisters, Sylvia Philbert of Las Vegas and Kathryn Norman of Santa Rosa.

A celebration of his life will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Wells Fargo Center.

The family prefers memorial donations to the Bob Norman Musician Development Fund, c/o Exchange Bank, 2201 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa 95403.

-- Robert Digitale