JOHN G. NORRIS PAPERS
Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
West Branch, Iowa
John G. Norris was born and raised in Washington DC, and graduated from George Washington University with a bachelors degree in 1931 and a law degree in 1933. Rather than following a career in law, however, Norris turned to journalism, reporting for Army and Navy Journal. In 1938 the Washington Post hired him, where he remained until 1968. Initially Norris reported on developments in Washington as this country prepared for war, but after the entry of the U.S. into the war following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Norris was accredited as a war correspondent. Eventually Norris entered the armed services, serving as a public relations officer in England, France, and the western Pacific.
Upon his discharge from active service, Norris returned to the Post in 1946. One of his first assignments that year was to cover developments in the Mediterranean while based on the U.S.S. Missouri. He later covered the Berlin Airlift, and other Cold War conflicts such as the Quemoy and Matsu crisis between China and Taiwan, the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, and the escalating war in Vietnam in 1965. After retiring from the Post in 1968, he edited Sea Power, the monthly magazine of the Navy League, until 1972. In 1973 the League awarded him the Alfred Thayer Mahan Award in recognition of his coverage of naval and military issues during his decades as an editor, writer, and reporter.
John G. Norris died at the age of 85 on April 2, 1993, at his home in Vero Beach, Florida.
The correspondence in this collection consist of one box of photocopies donated by Norris’ family, primarily of letters written by Norris to his first wife, Frances, during his wartime and postwar assignments abroad. Norris married Frances in 1935, and they remained together until her death in 1977. The correspondence is arranged in the following files:
1944, June-September: Letters describing his experiences in England, newly-liberated Normandy, Southern France (including Corsica), Italy, and North Africa.
1945, April-July: Letters from his postings in the Western Caroline Islands.
1945, August-October: Letters from Guam, the Marshall Islands, and Tokyo.
1946, March-April: Letters from the Mediterranean, covering travels in Turkey, Greece, Algeria, and Italy. Written while Norris worked as a Post correspondent based on U.S.S. Missouri.
1947-1973: Clippings about Norris, 1947-1973, as well as letters of commendation for articles written by Norris, sent from various people, including Post owner Philip Graham, Senator Stuart Symington, and General Omar Bradley, 1947-1953.