Winifred Latimer Norman

From Philosopedia

Winifred Latimer Norman (7 October 1914 - )

Norman, Lewis H. Latimer's granddaughter, is a retired social worker. Her grandfather was a pioneer in the making of the electric light. She is an activist with United Nations committees on religious freedom and aging. She saved her grandfather's house from demolition, turning it into a museum in Flushing, New York, and planning for its restoration. In 1993, his granddaughter, Dr. Winifred Latimer Norman, wrote a biography, Lewis H. Latimer, Scientist. Through her efforts, her grandfather's house in Flushing, New York, was saved from being demolished. Now a landmark, it is at 137th and Leavitt Streets, across from the Latimer Houses, which were named for the inventor

Her father was Gerald F. Norman, the first African-American high school teacher in New York State. He taught at Long Island City's Bryant High School. Her mother, Jeannette, was a Juilliard graduate and a concert pianist. Her brother, Gerald, was an administrative judge.

Norman attended the Jamaica Training College, a school that ceased operations during the Depression, after which she attended Hunter College. She earned her master's degrees from New York Universty in 1938 and her honorary doctorate from Meadville Lombard Theological School in 1964.

In 1993, she wrote a biography, Lewis H. Latimer, Scientist (Chelsea House). Kirkus described the work:

Latimer, a self-taught draftsman, drew up Bell's patent application for the telephone (delivered to the Patent Office only hours before a rival claim) and went on to frame many of Edison's patents, help him improve the light bulb, and supervise the installation of electrical systems in several cities. Opening with a substantial account of Latimer's father, an escaped slave who became an abolitionist cause celebre, this admiring biography follows Lewis's career from Civil War veteran to respected Edison Company executive. The talented inventor and manager also painted, kept a journal, and wrote poetry; the story continues to the present, as efforts proceed to make his N.Y.C. house a museum. Winifred Norman is Latimer's granddaughter; the extent of her contribution isn't clear, but the description of his retirement years has a personal air, and many of the big, clear b&w photos are from the Latimer-Norman Collection. An exemplary companion or replacement for Turner's Lewis Howard Latimer (1991). Bibliography; index. (Biography. 12+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Norman is a member in New York City of the Fourth Universalist Society.

- April 2006, Photo by Warren Allen Smith

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