William P. Norris Papers

William (“Bill”) Paul Norris (1943-2014) was a professor at Oberlin College for twenty-six years. The son of William Paul and Janis Corbitt Norris, he grew up in Tennessee until the family moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1953. Bill Norris graduated from the University of Arizona with a major in English in 1965. He joined the Peace Corps that year, where he served in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil as a community developer in a favela until 1967. He was sought out by visiting dignitaries to Bahia from the U.S. such as Robert Kennedy, Frank Church and others. His later research on Brazil centered on housing and community organization among the impoverished in Salvador and Sao Paulo and consulted on low-income housing with the Salvador municipal government. He was fluent in Portuguese and gave a number of invited talks in Brazil.

Norris turned toward sociology as a result of his experiences in Brazil, and received his master’s degree in sociology at the University of Florida in 1969. He returned to Salvador to research and write his dissertation on the survival strategies employed by marginal and working-class people in Brazil’s favelas, and received a PhD in sociology at Harvard University in 1977. After teaching briefly as a part-time instructor at Wellesley College and the Massachusetts College of Art, he was a professor at Oberlin College from 1978 until his retirement in 2008. He translated his interest in social justice into research on poverty in Lorain County, Ohio, and on the mixed experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students and faculty in higher education.

Chairing Oberlin’s sociology department several times, Norris was elected by his colleagues to major college committees, including the College Faculty Council.

William Norris guided the Lesbian, Gay Men and Bisexual Concerns Committee at Oberlin (Report to the President, 1990). Under his leadership, the committee established many critical parts of Oberlin’s current community—the clause about sexuality in the college’s Affirmative Action statement, domestic partnership benefits, and a tenured position in Sexuality Studies. He also chaired the Special Committee on Multiculturalism and the College Community (Report to the President, 1994). In addition, he chaired the Task Force on Asian American Studies (ad hoc), and the Standing Committee on Pluralism and Equality.

For twenty-five years, Norris taught the social theory course required for sociology majors. He was the founding chair of Oberlin’s Comparative American Studies Program and, with his partner Professor of History Clayton Koppes, received the first alumni award from Oberlin’s Lambda Alumni organization, which serves to facilitate the relationship between the college and its lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender alumni.

Norris pioneered teaching and research in queer studies at Oberlin; his sexuality courses, some of the earliest to address lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender issues were formative for many students in what sometimes seemed a hostile atmosphere.

His publications include “Coping with Poverty in Urban Brazil,” Doing Without: A Survey of Low-Income Blacks, Latinos and Whites in Lorain County, and “Liberal Attitudes and Homophobic Acts: The Paradoxes of Homosexual Experience in a Liberal Institution.”

He served for a number of years on the Boards of the local Urban League chapter, and the Community Action Agency.

Norris married Linda Berman while a graduate student at the University of Florida in the late 1960s. Together they had a daughter, Faryl Janis Norris, before the marriage dissolved. Faryl attended Oberlin and graduated in 1992. William Norris and Clayton Koppes met at Oberlin and were partners for thirty-five years, until Norris’ death in Cleveland in 2014 after a long illness. He was survived by Koppes, his daughter Faryl, his sisters Melissa Filley and Alison Wilson, and two grandchildren.

Sources

"Emeritus Professor William P. Norris, 1943-2014," Campus News (Oberlin College), April 14, 2014. Accessed June 26, 2019.

Oberlin College Archives, William P. Norris Faculty File (RG 28).

“Remarks Upon the Occasion of Bill’s Retirement Celebration, Oberlin College, 19 April 2008” by Clayton Koppes, William P. Norris Papers.

Biographical statements, William P. Norris Papers.

Note written by Anne Cuyler Salsich and Becky Sparagowski