By Terry A. Bork
August 21, 2024
Norma Ruth Koester was born March 6, 1930 to John D. and Mildred Koester in Sandusky, Ohio.
Norma’s parents divorced at an early age, leaving a nearly destitute mother to raise six kids during the last few years of the Great Depression.
Between 1936 – 1948 Norma changed schools 12 times while the family moved between Swanton, Sylvania and Toledo, before graduating from Burnham High School in Toledo, Ohio in 1948.
Norma had a quick mind and was offered a scholarship to attend Washington Missionary College (later called Columbia Union College) in Takoma Park, MD. She attended between 1948 – 1951. While a student, Norma met a young man named Paul Bork in 1950. Paul was a recent émigré from Brazil, studying theology and religion at nearby Potomac University. They dated, then married on December 9, 1951. They would remain married until Paul’s death in 2015.
Marriage to Paul F. Bork in 1951 interrupted her studies temporarily, but she later finished, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Newark State Teacher’s College (now Keane College) in 1954 while her husband was a pastor in Manhattan.
After their marriage, Norma followed her multilingual husband into Adventist church service, where he served as pastor of the German church in Manhattan from 1953-55. While there, their first child was born, Paul Kevin Bork. With a new baby in tow, the young family then moved to Massachusetts, pastoring the English and Portuguese churches in Taunton and New Bedford until 1959. While there, their second child—Terry Alan—was born. In 1961 the young family accepted a call to move to Loma Linda University, where Paul would teach at the Academy and serve as a staff pastor at the University church.
After moving to California, and with her kids in elementary school, Norma continued her education, receiving her Masters degree in Special Education from Cal State University, Los Angeles in 1963, then her Ph.D. in Speech Pathology in 1967 from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), magna cum laude, on a full scholarship from National Institutes of Health.
In 1967, after finishing her doctoral degree, Pacific Union College President Floyd Rittenhouse invited Paul and Norma to leave Loma Linda and join the faculty of the college—Paul in the Religion Dept., and Norma to start the new program in Speech Pathology. They accepted, moving their family to the bucolic Adventist college town of Angwin in its Napa Valley setting.
The two young energetic college professors were popular with students, and flourished at PUC, with their sons attending the PUC Elementary School, then the College’s Prep School, followed by college at PUC. Over time, Norma developed an enthusiastic student following for her advocacy of women’s issues on campus. The Bork home in Angwin was always full of students.
Norma would serve on the faculty for 11 years, rising to the rank of full Professor while founding the speech pathology program and establishing the Masters Degree program in the same discipline. Paul would serve on the faculty for over 21 years, also reaching the rank of full Professor, and retiring in 1989, while serving his last three years as Professor and Chair of the Religion Dept.
Norma had strong views in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, abortion rights, the proposed Redwood National Park, and for issues affecting children, women, health care, education and the environment. In 1976 an Angwin friend, Duane Cronk, suggested to Norma that in view of her views on issues, that she run for congress. After careful family discussions, she decided to do so. Soon after, she announced her candidacy for the Democratic Primary election, shocking some of her more conservative colleagues in the then-Republican stronghold of Angwin.
The congressional district was 275 miles long, stretching from the Marin County border to the Oregon border, and including the county’s of Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte. Norma had never run for office before and had little funding and no name recognition outside of Angwin, which was only about 1/4 of 1% of the population of the District.
Although a tenured college professor with a doctoral degree and record of academic accomplishment, media in the district referred to her as “the mother of two”. Media attention focused on the fact that she would not campaign on Friday night or Saturday due to her religion.
Norma won the contested Democratic Primary election—the first woman to do so in that congressional district. Many of the three TV stations, 25 radio stations and 80 small newspapers in the District were supportive of her, and some endorsed her. In the general election she faced Republican incumbent Don Clausen, who would outspend her by nearly 5 to 1. Yet, Norma won 45% of the vote to Clausen’s 51.9%--the lowest margin of victory he’d had in his previous nine terms in Congress. (A third party candidate received 3% of the vote). It was the strongest Democratic showing in the 2nd Congressional District in 18 years. She won more votes than any congressional challenger in California, and all but three in the nation, and more than any other female congressional challenger in the nation.
Pundits where surprised that a political novice college teacher had given the incumbent such a strong challenge. She announced that she would run again. In 1979, Norma was challenged again in the Democratic Primary, but defeated both her opponents, the Chair of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, and a young Lake County attorney and vintner, to become the Democratic nominee for Congress again in 1980. She had won 5 of 6 of the District’s counties in the Primary election. Her strong showing in 1978 had changed the feel of the 1980 campaign. This time, tens of thousands of dollars came in from small donors, plus labor, environmental and women’s groups, to pay for professional staff, billboards, brochures and mailers. President Carter invited her to the White House four times, then sent his son, “Chip” to campaign for her in her district, and then recorded a personal radio advertisement for her campaign. High-level Democratic office holders made visits to support her campaign. House of Representatives Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill campaigned for her in Santa Rosa, and promised Norma a seat on the influential House of Representatives Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries if she won—a prized seat in a district with a 275 mile long coastline. Governors Pat and Jerry Brown visited, as did Sen. Alan Cranston, LA Mayor Tom Bradley and Rep. Morris Udall, the chairman of the House Interior Committee. Hollywood chipped in to, with several actresses including Raquel Welch sponsoring and attending a fundraiser for her in her District.
But the political climate in 1980 had changed, and favored Republicans. Former Republican California Governor Ronald Reagan beat President Jimmy Carter in a landslide, carrying 44 states, including California. Republicans won control of the Senate and picked up 35 seats in the House. Democrats were defeated up and down the ticket. Norma—the Democratic Party standard-bearer in the Second District, lost 54% to 42%.
After the election, Paul and Norma needed a rest. They took a vacation to Hawaii.
After much thought and reflection, Norma decided to leave politics behind. She also decided not to return to teaching, and instead founded The Norma Bork Associates, a speech pathology contract service company that would grow to service over seventy hospitals, convalescent and sub-acute hospitals, home health and adult day care centers and seven California Youth Authority facilities. Later she added occupational therapy, physical therapy and social work services to many of the same locations, growing the business to employ dozens of therapists in several North Bay counties. In 1983, she additionally founded Exertec Physical Therapy Clinics with locations in Napa, St. Helena, Fairfield and Vallejo. In 1993 she sold her businesses to a national chain of therapy providers.
During her professional career she served on the boards or as chair of dozens of academic, community, professional, religious and civic organizations. During the course of two congressional campaigns Norma gave hundreds of radio, TV and media interviews and public speeches.
Together, Paul and Norma traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, South America, the Far East and Europe, including several trips in support Paul’s work and research in archaeology. As a pastor’s wife between 1951-1959, Norma held every church office then open to women in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. After Paul’s death, she volunteered with the Loma Linda University Church, including service on it’s church board. She also tried her hand at writing, publishing a controversial novel entitled “Ten Miles From The Nearest Sin”.
After retirement, she remained vitally interested in her children and grandchildren, and in politics, writing, gardening, reader’s theatre and travel.
Her husband, Dr. Paul F. Bork, predeceased her in 2015. Her son, Paul K. Bork, worked for Loma Linda University Medical Center for over 30 years. He and his wife, Susan Ruffcorn Bork, predeceased Norma in 2022 and 2020. Her son, Terry A. Bork and his wife, Jane M. Bork, M.D., live in Pasadena. Terry is a Superior Court Judge in Los Angeles. Jane served on the faculty of the Loma Linda University School of Medicine for many years until her retirement in 2019. Norma took great delight in the lives of her grand-daughter, Kate Bork Austin, and Kate’s husband, Kevin Austin, residents of La Crescenta; and in grandson Maxwell Bork, and his wife Ingrid Bork of Washington, D.C.
Norma died peacefully on Sabbath morning, June 29 in her home in Loma Linda, surrounded by her family.