Wheaton College Alumni Magazine Spring 2013 | Page 32
Five alumni find
joy and meaning as they
serve in new ways
after retiring from their
first careers.
by Jennifer Grant ’89
fe
bracingthesecond halfof li
#e m
Truth is, many of us live
in a status-update world.
*
“The # symbol, called a
hashtag, is used to mark
keywords or topics in
a Tweet. It was created
organically by Twitter
users as a way to
categorize messages,”
according to the Twitter
Help Center.
30 s p r i n g 2 0 1 3
Those of us who have
incorporated social media
into our lives will routinely tweet
or post status updates to
Facebook, allowing others a
window into our thoughts
or activities. Our updates may
be as mundane as what’s for
dinner, or as momentous as a
baby’s first photos. #gottashare*
But you won’t read news on
Facebook or Twitter about the
lives of the five alumni featured
here. All five were raised—and
reared their own families—
before the advent of social
media. After enjoying fruitful
first careers, each of them has
embarked on a second half
of life dedicated to the humble
service of God and others.
Because none of these stories
could be told in 140 characters
or fewer (à la Twitter), we’ve
decided to create biographical
status updates about these five,
so that all may see how the God
whom they serve has worked,
and continues to work with
them and through them in their
latest ventures.
Dan ’68 and Judy Smith Norman ’69
#awitnessinaddis
Dan and Judy Norman met at Wheaton in the mid ’60s when they
both played in what was then called the “concert band.” They
married in 1969 and later became the parents of two daughters and
a son. Over the course of their marriage, they lived all over the
U.S. as she worked as a part-time nurse and he attended graduate
school, taught, and served in the U.S. Army. Then they settled
in the state of Washington, where she worked in high-risk obstetrics
and he worked as a flight control engineer for nearly 30 years.
But this wasn’t their final move.