After living all over the country, Happy Valley is home for Norm Marlin ’48 once again. Living with his wife Peg at the Village of Penn State, Norm is enjoying the atmosphere of the small college town where he first joined Phi Kappa Sigma.
Norm attended Penn State just before WW II, where many Brothers, including himself, started classes, were drafted into the service, and after serving our country, returned to the University. During this period, the military took over the house and the members of Phi Kappa Sigma moved to an “old, wooden dump” on Beaver Avenue. Norm remembers having a good time at their temporary home.
Trout Fishing and the Small College Town Atmosphere Brought Norm Marlin ’48 Back to Happy Valley
Catering to his Skull House Brothers is One of His Favorite Memories
After living all over the country, Happy Valley is home for Norm Marlin ’48 once again. Living with his wife Peg at the Village of Penn State, Norm is enjoying the atmosphere of the small college town where he first joined Phi Kappa Sigma.
Norm attended Penn State just before WW II, where many Brothers, including himself, started classes, were drafted into the service, and after serving our country, returned to the University. During this period, the military took over the house and the members of Phi Kappa Sigma moved to an “old, wooden dump” on Beaver Avenue. Norm remembers having a good time at their temporary home.
Norm also cherishes the experiences that he had with Brothers that were just starting at Penn State fresh out of high school and the gentlemen that returned from military service and continued on with their education. Norm also shared in this experience. He completed only three semesters at Penn State before entering the service. After his discharge, he wanted to return to Penn State to complete his education. Since the timing of his discharge didn’t correspond with the new semester at Penn State, Norm took the initiative and returned to high school for a few months to prepare for the continuation of his college education. At that point in time, there was a very special mix of Skull House Brothers living in the fraternity that made life very interesting.
One of Norm’s favorite memories at Skull House was his job as caterer. There were only two paying jobs at the fraternity, treasurer and caterer. Norm took on the responsibility of caterer, and for two years arranged all the meals for the Brothers in the house. He hired the cook and the wait-staff. He planned menus, shopped for food, and made sure that all the meals went off without a hitch.
Although Norm didn’t have much experience in the food service business, he relied on the University and the vendors that served the fraternities for menu ideas and the planning necessary to make any daily catering event successful. Of course, the Brothers were the happiest when they were served steak and mashed potatoes, but the budget didn’t allow for that to happen every day. Norm said that it wasn’t too tough to please his Brothers, but they did let him know right away if he served something that they didn’t like. He couldn’t remember a time in the two years that he served as caterer that a meal was a complete disaster.
The Phi Kappa Sigma experience for Norm also included participating in intramural sports and belonging to several scholastic fraternities. He initially joined Skull House because several friends from his hometown were also members, and he really enjoyed the fellowship that the young men brought into his life.
The friendships that Norm embraced lasted a lifetime. Once, because of a job change, Norm moved his family to the “peanut capital” of Suffolk, Virginia. There he found four Brothers who also lived and worked in Suffolk. They graciously showed him around town and helped him to form new friendships. The brotherhood that he experienced in the fraternity helped him to become well established in the community in a short period of time. Norm stayed in Suffolk as a plant manager for over 11 years.
After working as a plant manager for several companies all over the country, Norm is now retired and enjoying his life in State College. He and his wife Peg, who is also a Penn State graduate, have three children. Their daughter Carol is a comptroller for an upscale men’s store in Indianapolis. Their son Kyle lives in Waco, TX and is a human resource manager for the Texas Farm Bureau, and their daughter Lissa works for General Motors in Detroit. They also have two grandchildren.
Norm also enjoys the camaraderie of Brothers from his era who also live at the Village at Penn State. He shares meals and outings with Henry Keller ’43, Chuck Deiker, and Ron Coder ’51. Friends that shared experiences at Skull House are now able to continue their friendships from many years ago.
One of the reasons that Norm moved back to State College, besides the college town atmosphere, was for the trout fishing which he enjoys tremendously. He is also a self-taught wood carver and carves quite a bit. Norm and Peg travel to see their children several times a year, but find that the State College area provides so many cultural, educational, and sporting activities that they do not need to travel far to be kept very busy.
The Phi Kappa Sigma experience was very helpful to Norm throughout his life and he has enjoyed the relationships that he has maintained over the years.
