Norman Mason Williams

Norman Mason Williams, Cmdr. USN Medical Corps (Ret.), died of cancer on September 10, 2008, at his home in Claremont, CA. He was 69 years old.

Born in Old Hickory, TN, and raised in Owensboro, KY, Norm attended RPI prior to receiving his appointment to the Naval Academy. He graduated with the 7th Company, Class of 1961.

Upon graduation, he served on the USS Hamner (DD-718) and as Chief Engineer on the USS Gurke (DD-783) in San Diego, from which he made WestPac tours. In June of 1965, he and his family moved to Hawaii for a tour of duty at Navy Communications Center Kunia on the island of Oahu.

Norm volunteered to be an advisor in Vietnam, where he spent 1967-68 with a junk fleet at Rach Gia, Kien Giang province on the Bay of Siam. He received the Navy Commendation Medal with Combat V upon his return to Hawaii in June of 1968.

Norm then enrolled in the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. His class being JABSOM’s last as a two-year medical school, Norm transferred to the Texas Tech School of Medicine, in Lubbock, becoming a member of their very first graduating class in 1974.

Norm completed the pathology residency program at the NRMC, Oakland, CA, in 1978, upon which he and his family moved to the Kuwae Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan. In January of 1981 he was transferred to the Navy Regional Medical Center in Camp Pendleton.

He moved into civilian life in July of 1985, working for Cigna in Phoenix and Unilab in Los Angeles. He was proud of his service with the US Marines in Okinawa and on Pendleton and of his former Navy shipmates.

He is survived by his partner, Patricia Judson; son Mark, daughters Stefani, Aimée and Zoe, stepdaughter Beth and their mother, Anita Marciel Williams; grandchildren Ben, David, Kian and Alissa; and in Kentucky, his mother Bonita, brother Robert and sister Bonnie.

His cremains will be placed in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) on February 13. Donations may be made to the American Cancer Society or to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.