Tribute to Norman dedicated

Al Fenske, Terry Ramsey, Kendall Vickers and Jayne Novak look at the Franklin Norman plaque that is to be placed in the lobby of the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center during its dedication ceremony Thursday afternoon. The plaque is still a "work in progress" and will be hung in its final location in a couple of weeks. --Ralph Pokorny/Daily Mail

Franklin Norman was the driving force behind the community center we have now, John Flynn told about 50 people at the dedication of a plaque presented to the city by The W. F. Norman Company and the 9 O'Clock Coffee Club, honoring Norman that will hang in the lobby of the Franklin P. Norman City/County Community Center. Up until a few days before he died, Flynn said that Norman would call people to his death bed to ask about the new community center, a facility Norman wanted named after Dewitt Hunter, who named Nevada and helped Nevada get started. "He (Hunter) was the right guy for his time, Flynn said. Flynn said that about 100 years later, when Norman was about the same age that Hunter was, Franklin took over the role of community advocate after he returned from World War II, helping to start the 9 O'Clock Coffee Club, was vice-chairman of the city's charter commission and served the community in many ways. "He was the right guy for the 20th century," Flynn said. "And based on the way he worked he had his eye on the 21st century," he said. Flynn also said that Norman probably would have thought the amount of time and money spent on making this plaque was unnecessary, but he is not here and "we can do what we want."