FRED NORTON:

Fred Norton was born August 19, 1928 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He completed his baccalaureate work at Wesleyan University in 1950 and then returned to Minneapolis to earn a law degree from the University of Minnesota in 1955. From 1956 until he was elected to the legislature in 1966, Norton worked as an assistant in the office of the Minnesota attorney general. He specialized in the attorney general's department of taxation for part of that time.

Norton was elected as a DFL candidate from St. Paul's District 46A to the House of Representatives in 1966. He was reelected ten times and served in the House for a total of 20 years. His district, which was reapportioned in 1972 as district 65A, included white-collar, middle and upper class constituents living in the Ramsey-Summit Hill neighborhoods as well as blue-collar, middle and lower class constituents residing within the Frogtown community. During his tenure he sat on the Appropriations, Government Operations, Financial Institutions and Insurance, Judiciary, and Rules and Legislative Administration committees and also served on the Joint Coordinating Committee (1973-1978), the Legislative Audit Commission (1973-1984), the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources (1977-1986), the Legislative Advisory Commission (1979-1980), and the Legislative Commission on Employee Relations (1983-1986). He chaired the Appropriations Committee during 1973-1980 and 1987, chaired the committee on Governmental Operations during 1981-1984, served as Speaker of the House in 1980 and 1987, and served as minority leader during 1985-1986.

Norton was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor Rudy Perpich on July 1, 1987, was elected to that court in 1988, was re-elected in 1994, and retired in 1997. He died at the age of 72 of bone cancer in October 2000.

Biographical information was taken from the collection and from The Minnesota Legislative Manual.

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Norton's legislative files include correspondence, memoranda, bill drafts, bill summaries, fiscal impact studies, amendments, committee reports hearing testimony, press releases, and news clippings. Files pertaining to the enactment of bills are identified by topic. Those particularly related to bills that Norton introduced or sponsored, are also identified by house file number.

The files are all arranged chronologically by legislative session except for two topical sets which precede those of each legislative session. These two exceptional sets concern the federal designation of the St. Croix River as a national scenic waterway (1965-1972) and the controversial construction of the Interstate 35E connection to Interstate 94 (1971-1983).

Additional files within each session address such issues as the preservation and contemporary use of officer's row at Fort Snelling, the Minnesota Emergency Employment Development program, plans for renovation of the hospital facilities at the University of Minnesota, the farm crisis of the mid-1980s, child care, family law, interstate banking, credit unions, taxation, minimum wages, unemployment compensation, worker's compensation, economic development along the University Avenue corridor, and financing for the Mall of America.

No files from the 67th session (1971-1972) are evident within the collection. A small amount of political correspondence (1969-1974), news clippings about Norton (1968-1975), and photographs of Norton ([1978-1987]) are also included within his legislative files. The letters consists of correspondence between Norton and his constituents as well as correspondence between Norton and state executive department officers, state commissioners, congressmen Joseph E. Karth, Eugene McCarthy, and Walter F. Mondale, the Governor, and others concerning individual welfare cases, public housing, employment, alley and roadway improvements, mail services, state funding for educational institutions and hospitals, abortion reform, pari-mutuel legislation, and state and federal appointments.

Campaign files (1968-1986), as well as legislative files documenting Norton's tenure as House minority leader (1985-1986), provide a great deal of information regarding state partisan politics and the role of the House DFL Caucus.

Norton's speech files are arranged in chronological order and are identified by engagement. Topical titles were added during processing by the Minnesota Historical Society. The majority of Norton's speeches focused on pending issues before the legislature or on summaries of legislation passed in any given session. For the most part, his speeches consisted merely of talking points rather than full typescript texts. However, many of the files also contain background material and research compiled by caucus research staff that reflect the DFL strategies and positions.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Fred Norton Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,696

Processing Information:

Processed by: Monica Manny Ralston, July 2002

Catalog ID number: 990017376240104294

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An oral history interview with Norton concerning the 1979 session of the Minnesota House of Representatives is available in the Minnesota Historical Society sound and visual collections.

Additional materials related to the Interstate 35E controversy are documented by the Twin Cities Transportation Planning Program records of the Metropolitan Council available in the Minnesota State Archives and in the records of the RIP-35E Environmental Defense Fund available in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.

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This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.

Topics:

Express highways -- Law and legislation -- Minnesota -- Saint Paul.

Historic sites -- Minnesota -- Fort Snelling -- Conservation and restoration.

Job creation -- Law and legislation -- Minnesota.

Labor laws and legislation -- Minnesota.

Property tax -- Law and legislation -- Minnesota.

Income tax -- Law and legislation -- Minnesota.

Agriculture -- Economic aspects -- Minnesota.

Farmers -- Minnesota -- Economic conditions -- 20th century.

Divorce -- Law and legislation -- Minnesota.

Child support -- Law and legislation -- Minnesota.

Financial institutions -- Law and legislation -- Minnesota.

Political campaigns--Minnesota.

Places:

Minnesota -- Politics and government -- 1951- .

Saint Paul (Minn.) -- Economic policy.

Interstate 35E.

Organizations:

Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Minnesota. Legislature. House of Representatives.

University of Minnesota -- Hospital and Clinic -- Finance.

Mall of America (Bloomington, Minn.) -- Finance.

Types of Documents:

Bills (legislative recrds).

Speeches.

Photographs.

Occupations:

Legislators -- Minnesota.

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