James "Jim" H. Norgord

James Howard (Jim) Norgord passed away Sunday, October 18th after a ten-month battle with AML leukemia. Born September 14, 1932, in Madison, Wisconsin, to Evan and Clara (Strommen) Norgord, Jim was the seventh of eight children in the family. He was born two months early – a precarious entry to this world with doctors at St. Mary’s Hospital working hard to save both mother and child. Jim was so small his first bed was the bottom drawer of his mother’s chest of drawers. But he flourished and soon was big enough for a crib. He grew up in Monona and attended Frank Allis School and Madison East High School, from which he graduated in 1950.

Not long after graduation Jim enlisted in the Wisconsin Air National Guard at Truax Field in Madison. In the spring of 1951, with the war in Korea under way, the unit was activated as part of the U.S. Air Force. In 1952 he and some buddies from the base at Truax Field stopped at a roller rink in Evansville where he met a young woman named Beth Gundlach who was there skating with a friend. A couple of months later, Jim returned to Evansville to find her but had no luck and had an accident that made driving the car impossible. A local police officer gave him a ride to the train depot to wait for the morning train to Madison. That officer was Beth’s brother-in-law, and he let Beth know that a young airman who had been looking for her was at the depot. Beth went to the depot and waited with him. They began dating. After the Korean war ended, Jim returned to civilian status. He went to the DeForest Training Center in Chicago for radio, television, and electronics education. After graduation, he worked maintaining coin operated games and juke boxes – converting many of the latter from 78 RPM records to the newer 45s.

Through it all he and Beth dated, eventually marrying at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Evansville on July 23rd, 1955. A year or so later, Jim was hired by AT&T to service the radio equipment at the microwave radio towers around the state. He was often called just before severe weather hit Madison to go repair equipment that had been damaged by the same storms in the western part of the state. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, he was assigned to stay at the Sun Prairie radio tower to ensure it remained functional because it was an integral part of defense communication with the Air National Guard base at Truax field. In 1967 he had an opportunity for promotion in the Milwaukee office, so he, Beth, and their five children moved east to Waukesha. After twenty years, he was supervising the Milwaukee operations when he decided to take an early retirement.

Jim and Beth raised five children over the course of their 70-year marriage. They welcomed fifteen grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren. Jim lived to see his first great-great grandchild. Shortly after Beth’s passing in January of this year, Jim was diagnosed with leukemia. Doctors felt he would not last more than a few months. He moved in with his daughter, Laura, and proved his doctors wrong. He set a goal of seeing his 94th birthday and achieved it, but ultimately, leukemia won the war.

Jim is survived by his children Greg (Mary), Laura Szecsy, John (Mary), Ken, and Tom; sisters-in-law Virginia (late George) Norgord, Joan (late Richard) Norgord, Mary and husband Ray McCool, and Sue (late Howard) Gundlach; and brother-in-law Tom and wife Tricia Gundlach. He is further survived by his grandchildren: Jenny (Rob) Leistiko, Amy (Mark) Hoth, Erica (Randy) Leistiko, Kevin (Sara) Szecsy, Ryan (Bekah) Szecsy, Andy (Andrea) Norgord, Carly Norgord, Allie (Matt) Bauer, Rebecca (Roberto) Fernandez, Sarah Norgord, Mike (Lauren) Norgord, Kayleigh (Priyanka) Kuruppu, Luke Norgord, Emily (Jack) Mason, and Aubrey Norgord.

Our family extends its sincerest thanks to the staff from Brighton Hospice – especially Linda, Caliegh, Tracey, and Laura – who supported Dad and us on his passage from this life to the next.

Visitation will be held on Monday, October 26, 2026 from 9:30AM until the 11:30AM funeral Mass at Corpus Christi Parish-St. William Church, 440 N. Moreland Blvd, Waukesha, WI 53188. Burial with full military honors will follow at Prairie Home Cemetery. Memorials in Jim’s name are appreciated to Corpus Christi Parish.