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When Doris “Dot” Berry Norton died in 1995, her four children—Steve Norton (a member of the UMaine faculty since 1968), Abigail Norton Daley, David Norton, and Robert Norton—wanted to do something special to honor her memory. Dot had graduated from Radcliffe College with a bachelor’s degree in French. She strongly believed in the transformative power of education and travel. She spent a post-Radcliffe year studying at the Sorbonne University in Paris. She encouraged and provided all her children with the opportunity for post-secondary education on a 4th-grade, newly minted teacher’s salary as a single parent.
Her children concluded that creating a named, permanently endowed scholarship fund that would enable students to study abroad would be the perfect legacy for her. Having decided that, they approached Dot’s alma mater about possibly establishing a fund there. They were told that creating such a named fund would require a minimum of $250,000, which was considerably more than the family had set aside. They next approached Princeton University where Steve completed his undergraduate degree, and were again told the minimum required would be in six figures. Despite pooling their resources, the minimum required by these Ivy League institutions was too high for the family to manage.
The Doris Berry Norton Travel Scholarship Fund
Determined to find a way to honor his mother’s memory, Anne Norton (Steve’s wife Annie (Peer), UMaine Class of 1958, with an MAT in French, 1970) and Steve approached the UMaine Department of Foreign Languages, chaired by Professor William Small. Small visited with the siblings and their spouses; he recommended working with the University of Maine Foundation. Steve learned that it would be possible to create a named, endowed travel scholarship in his mother’s memory for a minimum of $10,000, which could be paid over a period of several years. The family leaped at the opportunity and, in 1996, created the Doris Berry Norton Travel Scholarship Fund. This fund is now sufficiently endowed to enable UMaine students to travel to and from any University abroad for one or two semesters in a country where English is not the first language. If the University of Maine Foundation had been less flexible, what followed would likely not have occurred.
The Paula E. Peer Scholarship
Paula Peer, Anne’s mother, was born in Yorkshire, England, during World War I, lived in Belgium until 1938, and emigrated to the United States from Antwerp, Belgium, with her family in 1938. After the family’s immigration to the U. S., Anne’s family eventually settled in Blue Hill, Maine. Because Paula’s husband served in the Agency for International Development (AID) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), she traveled to and lived in many countries. Through this travel, Paula had the opportunity to become immersed in different cultures and became fluent in five languages. She was also an accomplished artist and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of the Americas in Mexico City, Mexico. Paula’s extensive travels gave her the opportunity to expand her studies to many different art forms. She also loved classical music and the performing arts.
To celebrate, Paula, Anne, and Steve created the Paula E. Peer Scholarship fund in 1998. This fund supports UMaine students studying art and music in countries where English is not the first language. For nearly a decade until her death in 2014, Paula enjoyed how much the scholarships named in her honor helped their recipients. She was pleased to be honored. The fund will continue to help UMaine students for generations to come and is a wonderful tribute to Paula.
The Henriette C. Murphy Scholarship
Paula Peer, Anne, and Steve decided to endow a third scholarship at the University of Maine Foundation when Anne’s favorite aunt, Henriette (Rita) Murphy, died in 2008. Rita lived in Antwerp, Belgium, where Anne was born, and spent her life caring for children with M.S. She commonly would take a group of children to the Brugge coast for a week or more at her own expense. The Henriette C. Murphy Scholarship, which has focused on UMaine students with disabilities, became a reality in 2008. Rita lived long enough to see the new building she endowed in Antwerp that housed M.S.-afflicted children and their parents. Amy Sturgeon, Assistant Director of Student Accessibility Services, recently expressed her gratitude for her program, saying:
“Since 2008, the Henriette C. Murphy Scholarship has greatly impacted students with disabilities attending the University of Maine. The scholarships have allowed many students to achieve their educational goals that would have otherwise been impacted by financial and other barriers.”
The Annie (P.) Norton Memorial Scholarship
Anne Norton taught French and Spanish for more than 25 years at Bucksport High School and Hampden Academy and traveled abroad every year with her students to Spain, France, or the French possessions St. Pierre and Miquélon. She believed that immersion in other cultures was critical to understanding ourselves and others. Sadly, Anne passed away in 2009, just a year after Henriette. Over the course of her lifetime, Anne mastered French (her father spoke only English to her in Belgium, knowing the family would emigrate to America when she was two years old), Spanish, German, and Norwegian. Steve and Anne’s three children (David Thurlow, Lisa Hydrick, and Stephen Norton) endowed the Annie (P.) Norton Memorial Scholarship fund at the University of Maine Foundation in 2009 —again, a travel fund to help UMaine students studying abroad in a country where the first language is not English.
The travel scholarships established by the Norton family honor the spirit of adventure and the importance of cross-cultural immersion. These endowed scholarships are making, and will continue to make, a tremendous impact on the lives of UMaine students. The Director of the Office of International Programs, Orlina Boteva, said,
“The Norton/Peer family has been helping UMaine students study abroad for nearly 30 years. Over the years since their inception, more than 40 students have received scholarships from the Doris Berry Norton Scholarship, the Paula Peer Scholarship, and the Annie (P.) Norton Scholarship. The scholarships are intended to cover the travel expenses for students studying abroad where English is not the first language. Students who received one of these scholarships have spent one or more semesters in Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Japan, Jordan, South Korea, Spain, Tanzania, and Ukraine (before the war). They returned to UMaine full of memorable stories, new skills and friendships, and described their study abroad experience as transformative.”
Through the four endowed scholarship funds the family has created at the University of Maine Foundation, their legacy of kindness has changed the lives of UMaine students.
Steve Norton wrote:
“Creating these endowments that allow Maine students to advance into the world has been a very rewarding experience for my late wife Anne and me, especially when we received letters and notes from abroad or locally, acknowledging what a difference my family and I made in their lives. Bill Small would be pleased that we followed his lead. When these students are able to support other students’ aspirations, I know the University of Maine Foundation stands ready to help them advance opportunities for UMaine students from anywhere. The Foundation has always listened to what we wanted to accomplish, and we have reacted as a team toward any refined goals.”
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