For more than 70 years, the members of the Hans A. Norberg family have enriched the lives of Tulsans and Oklahomans through their extraordinary personal investment in the arts and sciences. Their ties to The University of Tulsa are strong and longstanding.
Hans Norberg was born in Oregon; he grew up in Minnesota, where he attended the University of Minnesota; and he completed post-graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania; however, he made his career and raised his family in Oklahoma. In 1931, he became an electrical engineer for Phillips Petroleum (now Phillips 66) in Bartlesville, and it was a move that would alter the path of his life.
Lillian Born Norberg was originally from Seminole, Oklahoma, and had attended Emerson College in Boston, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in literature and drama in 1928. She had been teaching at Westbrook Seminary, a girls’ preparatory school in Maine, for about two years, when her father died. Suddenly, the responsibility of the family fell to her, and she returned home to Bartlesville to care for her four younger brothers and sisters. Only the family knows the story of how Hans and Lillian met and how their romance began. Lillian’s duties to her siblings more than likely affected any plans she and Hans had to be married, but in 1938, the couple wed.
Two years earlier, Hans had moved to Tulsa to work for C.B. Nelson, who owned Nelson Electric Supply. Together, the men formed Nelson Electric Manufacturing, and Mr. Norberg served as president of this company for 29 years, and later as chairman of Sola Basic Industries, which acquired Nelson Electric. He also served as president of Norberg Industries.
By the 1940s, the Norbergs’ household was filled with three children: Dr. Peter Hans Norberg, who earned his master’s degree in zoology from TU and later cared for Tulsans as a plastic surgeon until his death in 2000; Dr. Anna Norberg, an acclaimed pianist and professor at The University of Tulsa for 34 years; and Dr. Kathryn Norberg, an associate professor at The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Over the decades, the Norbergs became well known for their community involvement. Hans chaired and helped charter the Tulsa Section of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and was a Fellow of the national IEEE. He also was named Engineer of the Year by the Oklahoma Society of Professional Engineers. Locally, he served as an elder at Southminster Presbyterian Church; as a director of the Tulsa Science Foundation; as a member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board; as a supporter of what is now The Center for the Physically Challenged; and as a founding member of the Summit Club. He died July 19, 1989, at age 87.
Lillian Norberg, with a background in literature, made libraries her cause. She once told an interviewer for the Tulsa Tribune, “Books and reading were paramount in my family. They were our passion, our love, the content of our conversations.” When she arrived in Tulsa, she was “astounded” by the poor condition of the downtown public library. In 1957, she formed Friends of the Library, a volunteer group focused on library needs and improvements. Later, she worked to establish Friends groups in other Oklahoma communities. Along with Friends of the Library, she spearheaded the successful campaign to build a new Central Library and expand its branch service, and she also helped establish the Tulsa Library Trust. Lillian Norberg was considered the “First Lady of Oklahoma Libraries.” Amazingly, she also was active in civic groups as diverse as the League of Women Voters, Tulsa Philharmonic, Panhellenic, Tulsa Fortnightly Club, and Sigma Alpha Iota, and she was a founder of the local chapter of the Assistance League.
Mrs. Norberg was inducted into the Tulsa Hall of Fame in 2003, and she also was given the Citizen’s Award from the Oklahoma Library Association, and the Harwelden Award from the Arts and Humanities Council of Tulsa. The city named Norberg Park in her honor at the corner of East 31st Street and Garnett Road.
Even with all of her activities, she did not forget her family’s strong ties to TU. In 2005, just a year before her death, she graciously chose to establish, with her children, The Hans A. Norberg Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering at The University of Tulsa, which honors her husband’s distinguished career. This munificent gift supports the recruitment, salary, research, and professional activities of an eminent faculty member in electrical engineering.
In addition, daughter Anna Norberg, along with friends, colleagues, and students, paid tribute to the life and legacy of Anna’s late husband, Dr. Joseph Kestner, by making memorial gifts to support a student award in his honor. Dr. Kestner was the Ida Barnard McFarlin Chair in English/Film Studies at TU. The Joseph A. Kestner Endowed Student Award in Film Studies is given annually to an outstanding student in the Department of Film Studies. Anna has also committed an estate gift to fund a faculty chair in her husband’s name.
The University of Tulsa treasures its ties to the Norberg family and is grateful for their thoughtfulness and generosity in creating the Hans A. Norberg Endowed Chair in Electrical Engineering. This important namesake chair will enhance academic excellence among electrical engineering students at TU for generations to come.
