Ed Norris, of Dix Hills, co-publisher of community newspapers, dies at 62

Parkinson’s is a disease. To Dix Hills’ Ed Norris, it was also a challenge and an adventure.

“He did outdoor activities of every kind, from snowmobiling to paragliding, and he continued to do them” after his 2000 diagnosis of the progressive nervous-system disorder, said his friend Malcolm Stitt, formerly of West Babylon and now of upstate Pawling.

“It took a while in the early phases for him to [learn to] talk to his arms and make them do what he wanted,” Stitt said, “but he had no problem being out in high-risk situations."

In one extraordinary incident, Stitt recalls, “He was hang gliding and got hit by some wind gusts, and it knocked him down in elevation. And he was down around power lines — those big, massive power lines with the big stanchions, a hundred feet high — and he actually thought fast enough to swoop underneath. Without that quick thinking, we would've been doing this earlier,” he said, referring to this obituary.

“We were skiers when we were younger,” said his wife of 35 years, Meg Norris, with whom he co-published a half-dozen community newspapers, including the flagship The Garden City News. “Parkinson's took [skiing] away from him, but after he was diagnosed, he started sailing” catamarans. And the couple continued to travel. “Once we flew up to the furthest point Air Canada flew to just to be able to see the northern lights.”

Norris died of complications from Parkinson’s on Thanksgiving morning, at home, at age 62.

“He was very curious about everything all the time,” said his wife, who recalled how he would buy broken vacuum cleaners and sewing machines at thrift stores and, self-taught, fix them. “He wasn't great at doing schoolwork, but he was really, really smart. He liked to argue a lot. Somebody recently called it recreational arguing,” she said wistfully.

Edward Owen Norris was born May 8, 1963, in Huntington, one of two children of Ian Norris and Nancy Andersen Norris, and raised in Garden City. His parents divorced when he was very young, and the children, estranged from their father, grew up with their administrative-assistant mother and her parents. “He and his father just reconnected last Christmas after many, many years,” Meg Norris said.

After graduating from Garden City High School in 1981, Ed Norris attended Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, before transferring to Nassau Community College in Garden City, obtaining an associate degree. He went on to work a variety of jobs, including as an operations manager at Manhattan’s South Street Seaport, now The Seaport.

In 1987, he became operations manager for the parents of his future wife, Margaret Ruth Morgan, at Litmor Publishing, which continues today to produce Long Island community newspapers. “My dad really took to him,” Meg Norris said, and Ed learned “a little of everything.” As well, she added, “When things broke down, Ed could fix them. And he also was able to negotiate.”

The couple married in 1990, and when her parents each died in 1994, the Norrises became co-publishers. In 2003, the Nassau Council of Chambers of Commerce presented them with its Business Person of the Year award.

Ed Norris retired in 2010 as his Parkinson’s progressed, saving his energy for excursions with sailing friends and with his wife and their two sons. “Ed sailed out of Heckscher [State Park, in East Islip] and loved the Great South Bay,” said Stitt. “And the Bethpage Bikeway. Those were big Long Island spots for him.” His team took Division B first place in the Southold Yacht Club’s Around Shelter Island Catamaran Race in 2002.

In addition to his wife, Norris is survived by their sons, Kevin, of Mountain View, California, and Garrett, of Stony Brook; his father, of Land o’ Lakes, Florida; and his sister, Denise Norris, of Andes, in upstate Delaware County.

He was cremated. The family held a private service, and a memorial is planned for May 9 at the Heckscher State Park beach.

Donations may be made to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research “or a charity of your choice,” the family said.