How a Corporate Lawyer Found His Mission-Driven Path (Bob Norton)

MUSIC George Washington and Arnold Palmer and the great singers and artists. And we talk a lot about one particular college, Hillsdale College, on this show a lot. They're proud sponsors of our history stories. Always they're brought to us by Hillsdale College.

It was founded in 1844 by free baptist abolitionists. The school today is notable for teaching the things that are beautiful in life and that matter in life. And our next story, well it isn't about the school, but it's about somebody who works there. His name, Bob Norton. Here is Doug Ryder with his story. Bob grew up in Mount Clemens, Michigan, outside of Detroit.

I'm not sure why it's called Mount Clemens because there's no mountain there, but it's called Mount Clemens. And I grew up there and had a had a great childhood. Part of Bob's childhood was family coming together to support a young girl with disabilities. My sister was born three years after I was born and my sister is challenged. And so my mom really dedicated her life in main part to the raising of my sister and providing for her care. She's mentally challenged.

She's three years younger than I am so right now she's about 55 years old and she has the mentality of about an eight-year-old. So it was a lot of challenge for my mom and it wasn't a very enlightened time there in the 60s. So it was a difficult time to have a child like that and my mom did an excellent job of making sure my sister was cared for. With all the love and support in his family, he still had difficulty understanding his sister's disabilities. It was hard to understand her and sometimes understand what she was doing. A little confusing for me as a child as to why she was different than other people's sisters.

And so that was its own challenge that you deal with as a child. But then as she got older, I was raised in a family where my grandfather had been a golden glove boxer and he thought we should protect the ladies of the family, especially if there's any any issue where some young lady but especially a family member is being dealt with poorly then you're supposed to step in. So my sister found that to be a great form of entertainment. She'd often find me the fight of the day with somebody that had done something bad to her. She would tell people my brother's going to beat you up. So that made it for an interesting life in and of itself.

So that's the question. Did Bob fight? I did actually beat them up. My grandpa had made sure that I knew how to protect myself and defend other people. So yeah, I did end up getting a lot of fights as a boy. I'm not really so proud of that. But at that time, that was the code, at least the way I thought it was, that if somebody said something to one of my female cousins that was inappropriate, or was even again, you would step in if somebody was being rude or difficult with their girlfriend or somebody else, it was the job of a man to step in and defend them.

In the Norton family, men were the protectors. They stepped up. But at such a young age. Well, I was the oldest grandson, and my grandpa had taught me how to box. And I was sort of told that was my role. I wasn't left for me to figure out.

I was told you need to get in there and do something at an early age. Bob took to heart his responsibility to defend the cost, his grades. I was kind of failing school up through fourth grade. I was distracted doing other things, including having my own police club that I had started where we would police the playground and keep it free from bullies.

So see, I really took to this guardian of other people thing. But then in fourth grade, turned it around, started getting all A's and doing well in school. Bob has done well academically ever since, but he still can't help himself.

As an adult in a very responsible job, General Counsel of Hillsdale College, he did it again. That aspect of my personality is still sort of there to this day. There was recently somebody at a Menard store that was being extremely rude to the woman clerk that said he was going to punch her. And he was a couple aisles over and I couldn't help myself but to say, and then you're going to get a chance to fight a real man, which won me the acclaim of everyone in the store. And I kind of thought later to myself, that's probably not a smart thing to say and do these days.

But it was just there below the surface. Back to Bob's early years, he did more than just fight. His family had a business. And like most kids growing up in a family business, Bob spent much of his early childhood years working there. In my case, it involved going to work with my father most Saturdays, starting at about the age of eight years old.

My father owned a car dealership with a partner. And he would bring me to work and I did all kinds of things that I thought were very useful and necessary to the running of that car dealership only later to realize he was giving me make work projects, probably to get me out of my mother's hair for those Saturdays. I was told to like pick up things around the service department.

You know, growing up in the 60s was a great time because we had toys like wood burners, where you give a child a, you know, a hot object and tell them to burn wood. And in my case, my father said, go wander around that service department where there's all kinds of power tools and welders and things that could fall off a hoist and pick up things. So I would go around with a coffee can and pick up little nuts and bolts or things he told me to pick up.

And then at the end of the day, he would pretend as though he made some kind of measurement to determine how much money I'd made for the day. And you've been listening to Bob Norton talking about all of the forces that helped shape and form him. Most importantly, that sister of his and him being the protector of her and then of others is it just in the end came naturally to Bob. And by the way, you can't make all men or women be protective.

Some are, some aren't. And there are all types and we feature every type here on this show when we continue more of a Bob Norton story here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we're asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation.

A monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to our American stories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's our American stories.com. Hey, you guys, this is Tori and Jennie with the 90210MG podcast. We have such a special episode brought to you by NerdTech ODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's 10th poll event, Wingo Tango. Did you know that NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75 milligrams can help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event like Wingo Tango? It's true. I had one that night and I took my NerdTech ODT and I was present and had an amazing time. Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends. This episode was brought to you by NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75 milligrams.

Life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully NerdTech ODT Remedipant 75 milligrams is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines in adults. So lively events like Wingo Tango don't have to be missed. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. And we return to our American stories and the story of Bob Norton, and he happens to be the general counsel for Hillsdale College, but that's not why we're doing this story. His life is just so darn interesting. Let's continue with the story. While Bob cut his teeth working at his dad's car dealership picking up junk, he also sold Christmas cards and flower seeds door to door.

His imagination soon went to bigger ideas. Well, I remember that I found that you could make pretty good profit margin if we took used tires that other people had discarded that they were no longer fit for like everyday use, but you could take the used tires and at that time they were just coming out with the mini spare tires that people hated those little donuts. And so I could get a used wheel and a used tire and sell them to people out front in the gas island who were filling up their car with gas. I could say, hey mister, would you like to have a real spare?

And people say, yeah, that'd be great. And I knew my inventory and by the way, I took the tires and painted them. I found that there was such a thing as paint that you can paint tires with. And so I would paint these tires and be black from head to foot. My skin was completely black, but I would paint these tires and put a nice label on them. And I would sell the person a spare tire and wheel for say, I think like $35 back then in the seventies.

That's pretty high price when I think about it. But I would sell them this spare tire, a real spare tire, which people were craving. And there still was room in the trunk for the spare, for the full-size spare.

We had just gone to these tiny tires after the oil embargo. And so I would sell these things. And my dad said he would give me 10% of whatever I made selling these used tires and wheels.

So I worked away and kept track of my inventory. And then I cashed it in probably at what was the end of a summer. And I remember I made $1,400, which my mother thought it was an obscene amount of money for me to make.

No teenage boys should be making that kind of money. But my father, true to his word, my father paid me the 10% and as if I wasn't already an entrepreneur from my seed selling and other ventures that certainly told me that, you know, I like this business idea. I like being able to provide a service people want and maybe being able to make a profit.

This is a great way to make a living. And at that time, it's the way I thought I'd always make a living is being a business person. Well, my first car I bought when I was 14 and it was a 1956 Lincoln that I saw an ad member back in the old days, there was classified ads in the paper. And I saw somebody had an ad for this Lincoln, but I didn't really realize how big that car was. It was a huge car.

It was a, it was a monster. So when we went to go buy this car, it was, it was an older lady in Detroit selling it. The garage door wouldn't shut.

The garage door was resting on the trunk of the car because it was a small garage. And so we, um, my father came with me after work one night and we borrowed a wrecker from the next door gas station. And we, we towed the car back from Detroit. All the tires had been flat. He brought air tanks with us and I filled the tires up. And by that age, I already knew enough about cars and tires that I thought I could just look by eye, tell how, how inflated a tire was. So I inflated the tires and as we were driving along, I had way overinflated one of the front tires because the car's so heavy.

The sidewall bulge in that tire was actually from, still too much air. And so the car broke loose on the record, started swinging back and forth from left to right. The rope that had tied off the steering wheel had, it became frayed and broke loose. So the car took out mailboxes, trees alongside the road by the time my dad stopped. And yet the car barely had a dent. And I brought it back in front of our tire store, parked it alongside the road.

Basically it would go out and work on that car and try to bring it to life someday for when I was going to be able to drive. And somebody came, bought the car from me. And I don't remember the exact prices to tell you the truth, but for multiples of what I paid for it. And again, I felt like I was rich. This was tremendous that I bought this car and only had to go drive 20 miles away and tow it up and work on it every day to make what I'm sure is only hundreds of dollars. But it seemed like a King's ransom to me. While Bob was hustling tires and cars in the city, you have to remember that he came from a family of farmers.

He was always looking for more opportunities to expand his business and feed his entrepreneurial spirit. The Norton's are farmers. They're from Three Rivers, Michigan, been in the state of Michigan since before Michigan was even a state. And one of my uncles said, you know, do you think you could sell firewood? You think people there in Mount Clemens would like firewood? Because I've got lots of trees here I can cut up.

So I said, I don't know. So I went around door to door and I sold firewood and it was something like $45 a cord of wood. I didn't even know what a cord of wood was, right? I was a city kid, right? I was wearing my Kiana pants and my, uh, my wood heeled shoes to school, multi layers of, uh, like a tall wooden heel shoe.

And so I didn't know what a quarter wood was. So I went knocked on doors and some people say, yeah, you know, that's, you know, you, you bring it, you deliver it. Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, we'll definitely deliver it. And so I sold all this wood and my uncle seemed happy. And so one day after school was determined, he was going to come, we were going to deliver that wood. And I remember much like, uh, I guess a comedy scene in a movie, I'm like outside in my neighborhood and here comes this huge truck full of wood, kind of like those large military trucks.

They call me two and a half trucks with a bunch of men get out of the back, mounted with wood, top. And I remember thinking, I hope that can't be all of the wood that I have to deliver today. And he and I delivered that wood until I don't know, it was 10 30 at night.

And we both remember, he's, he's still, uh, remembers. I mean, we worked so hard stacking all that wood. Some people wanted us to put it around the back of their house and I hadn't made it clear whether or not that was part of the deal. So we sold that wood, but he was happy. It was a lot of money's worth of wood.

And again, whatever commission he paid me, I thought was great pick. As a teenager and budding entrepreneur, Bob earned more than just money. He earned the respect of his father and assumed a bigger role in the family business. By the time I was 14, I could give my dad a day off in the summer in particular, and I could run the store and we had, you know, older mechanics and that that worked there. And I was the boss, I'd set the schedule now, and then they test, you know, my authority to tell them you're going to work on this car, not that one.

But we generally got along, but I could do the full day's work, including making the bank deposit. And so, uh, you know, running the counter one day, this gentleman came in and he needed something done on his car. I don't remember what, but I remember it was the first time I had ever at least paid attention to cufflinks. He had these nice cufflinks on his shirt and I thought, what is that? And so I realized he's wearing a suit. No, I don't think I'd ever seen cufflinks before.

I'm like, what, what is that? And so he had, he had a tie and cufflinks and the, I think his suit coat was over his arm. I didn't even have his briefcase. I don't remember, but I do remember the cufflinks standing out. And so I, uh, I called in the credit card at that time. You did a little imprint of the credit card and then you called it in. And when I called it in, they said, is the card that you're holding gold? And I said, why, yes, it is gold. And they said, this card has no credit limit on it.

Please do not detain that customer any longer. And so I looked down and the name on it was Stro, uh, which is the name of the famous beer and ice cream in Detroit. And so I turned around and asked him, I said, are you? And he says, yeah, yeah, I am. I said, oh, wow, great.

You know, that was exciting. So I had taken care of what in my mind was a celebrity. Well, after that, he would always come in and see me, right?

He liked it. I started working on his cars, I'm sure when I was younger, but he would wait and deal with me. He thought it was kind of cool to be given this teenage kid a little business and I'm sure he'd let me upsell him to something, you know, slightly more extravagant.

So we formed a little bit of a friendship to one day. I asked him, I said, can I ask you a question? And he said, sure.

What? I said, why do you drive a Plymouth station wagon? And he laughed. And he said, well, because when I drive to downtown Detroit, I don't want to stand out. And I said, yeah, but it has vinyl seats and no air conditioning. And he thought that was hysterical.

He thought that was really funny that I was like telling him, you know, dude, you got to get a better car. So I then go to law school later in life, the whole of the story. And I ended up getting assigned to be the general counsel of product liability, the nationwide counsel for product liability for Stro Brewery.

And as we're going along, I, you know, I would settle these cases and resolve them. And I needed to have a signature of a corporate officer for some bigger settlement. And so rather than sending a runner over, I drove over myself to, to Stro and asked them if I could see Mr. Stro. And they wrote, you know, they said, well, who are you?

I said, well, tell him his lawyer needs to see him. So I went into the office and I said, you remember the guy who used to always buy tires from Laker and he said, yeah, I said, that's me. And he jerked like he had been electrocuted.

He goes, what happened? And so we laughed and we, we talked about it, but it was odd that my life had come around full circle. And now as one of his outside lawyers, I was coming to his office. And you're listening to Bob Norton. And now you know why we wanted you to know, Bob, when we come back more of Bob Norton's story.

And there's a lot more to come here on Our American Story. Hey, you guys, this is Tori and Jenni with the 9021 OMG podcast. We have such a special episode brought to you by NerdTech ODT. We recorded it at iHeartRadio's 10th poll event, Wango Tango. Did you know that NerdTech ODT Remedipants 75 milligrams can help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event like Wango Tango?

It's true. I had one that night and I took my NerdTech ODT and I was present and had an amazing time. Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends. This episode was brought to you by NerdTech ODT Remedipants 75 milligrams. Life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family.

But thankfully, NerdTech ODT Remedipants 75 milligrams is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines in adults. So lively events like Wango Tango don't have to be missed. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. And we return to our American stories and our story of Bob Norton, and he happens to be Hillsdale College's General Counsel. And I've known Bob for a very long time and we don't do a lot of stories about people we know, but we don't want to exclude them either because they matter too. When we last left off, Bob's entrepreneurship skills he developed at a young age, working at his dad's car dealership, had more than paid off and he'd become a lawyer for a man he used to serve there. But before he got to that point, Bob had to first tackle other challenges. Let's continue with Bob Norton's story.

Bob was ever the happy warrior and had his successes, but then came the curveballs. So when we moved to Oxford, we moved out in the country on 10 acres, which seemed like a huge farm to me, having moved from the city where we had small city lots. And so we moved to this farm that had a barn and it had a little corral, I guess you call it, a little fenced in area. And my uncle had been boarding a horse somewhere at some barn, I'd never seen this horse before. And he decided, you know what, I could stop paying to board the horse and you can have the horse.

So he had mentioned this like at a family birthday party, you know, I've got this horse, maybe you'd want to see if it could work for you. Next thing I know, there's a trailer pulling up. I don't even know how long we lived there.

I think it was just weeks after we got there. He pulled up with this trailer and I had a horse. He brought a saddle and he brought all the things to go with the horse and said, there you go, you got a horse and how hard can it be? Exactly.

I mean, I don't think he was coy about that. I think it was like, here's the deal. You can have the horse, but you got to feed it and take care of it. I got to go.

Bye. I didn't ask for the horse. I wasn't sure I liked the idea of the horse. I don't know that I'd ever ridden a horse, maybe a pony, maybe I'd been on a horse, but it wasn't as though I had posters of horses on my wall, right?

I had posters of cars on my wall. But when we got the horse, I was not sure if I liked this idea or not until I figured out that teenage girls generally like horses and I couldn't drive yet. So I thought this horse could come in very useful. So my wife, yeah, my wife, I met my wife on the school bus and she was 14 and I was 15 and turned out, lo and behold, she did like horses. Only downside is she liked the horse a lot better than she liked me for about the first 90 days. But if I bring the horse over, she would go riding the horse with me. And so it was the horse that got the girl, not the car. It was, although since she was 14 and I was 15, she didn't like horses. She didn't like horses. Although since she wasn't dating me, it was as platonic as two people could be riding a horse together.

I thought so. And she was willing to go along with it. So, but she would make us like go over and ride the horse, like in her friend's front yard, which, you know, it wasn't quite something from a Hallmark movie at that point because her friend would even come out and we'd give the, I'd get off and let the friend ride the horse or the friend would even ride with me on the horse. So, you know, my wife was very careful to say, I like the horse, but not so much you. Oh, I, you know, I would fall off the horse a lot in the beginning, hopefully without her around, because I didn't even know how to tie the saddle on the horse. I'd been riding the horse for a while before one of the other neighboring young ladies that had a horse said, let me show you how to tie a saddle.

And it was fascinating. I had no idea there was all that involved in tying a saddle. It took some time to learn how to saddle a horse. He did learn, he got the girl and then faced the challenge of college. College was harder than high school had been. One professor in particular, a Dr. Varner, Ms. Varner did not like my writing, said it was not up to college standard. The first paper I turned in in college, she gave it back to me, F minus. This writing is not up to college standards.

If you do not improve your writing, you will not pass this class. I don't think I, maybe I got in one D in my life, but I never know. I'd never gotten anything like that. But I think somewhere along the way, I picked up the notion of, well, okay, then that means we got improved. So I went up to her after class. I said, I think I know what's wrong with this paper. She said, what?

I said, someone's written all over it in red ink. And she didn't even break a smile. She said, come to my office. So I had a standing appointment at her office on Tuesdays to go in and she would tutor me.

She'd try her best to tutor me. And eventually my writing got a little better, a little better. And I got to where I was getting like a C in the class, which wasn't a very common occurrence for me. But I said, you know, can I, can I stop now?

I mean, do I have to still keep coming? She said, yes, because you can do better. And so she, she made me work hard. And then later in life, I decided to go to law school and there was a legal writing class you had to take. And of course, everything in law school is competitive.

It is, at least especially back then, it was like you see in the movies that cut throat. Everybody's trying to get the top grades and be at the top of the class. And so a legal writing class, no exception, first semester law school, you have to do this. And one person's going to get the A in the class. And at the end, I got the A in the, in the writing class. And I called Dr. Varner, who's now at Abilene Christian University, I believe is where she may still be. And I called her and she cried.

Well, a lot of ladies cry when I talk to them, but I was glad that she felt emotional that she, that she had worked, worked so hard to help me and that it had paid off. Bob did do well in college. So well, he was accepted to the University of Michigan Law School, where he faced a new set of challenges, short on money and short on time, married with a two-year-old living in student housing. I had found out that when I came home, I could have a dinner with the family, with my son, with my wife. And then shortly after that, excuse myself, and I would go down in the basement of the married housing school. And I would go to the bathroom and I would go to the bathroom myself and I would go down in the basement of the married housing unit that we were now renting from University of Michigan. And if I went down in there, down in the basement and studied in my underwear, that you stay awake better when you're really cold than if you let yourself get warm.

So I would study cold and keep myself awake and sometimes get up at 5 30 in the morning and do it again. While Bob was doing well in law school, he was still broke. I remember being poor during law school.

And in fact, after law school, we'd put money even on our credit cards to make it through to the very end. And so I had found out the most cost-effective lunch I could eat was some rice cakes and a yogurt. So Kathy would buy me a sleeve of rice cakes and a yogurt. And one of the professors, one of the partners at the law firm would comment about what a health food nut Bob is.

Look, he eats his health food. And I of course, I just kind of of course went ahead and went with that. Yeah.

Yeah. You know, I'm just trying to be healthy, but it was really because it was the cost-effective way. I was driving a little inexpensive car, but at least it was no rust on it. And the little three cylinder car originally in law school. And then I got all the way up to a four cylinder car and being a car guy, come a long way since my Cadillac days, I was driving a little, a little economy car. A funny story there is that the, the law firm was a nice law firm. I was fortunate to get a good job at a good firm, but I had some debt net to pay off. So they had a firm outing at the Detroit yacht club and a nice prestigious place. And everybody ahead of me is driving in with their Mercedes and their Cadillacs and the guy at the security guard in this column of cars stops my car. Who are you?

I'm with this firm. Really? I had to kind of show him some ID and he's like, okay. And then he waves all the cars behind me, but a little bit like the Sesame street.

One of these things is not like the other. And you've been listening to Bob Norton, tell some really good stories. And I keep thinking about that Mrs. Varner and we all have a Mrs. Varner in our lives.

Someone well, that's pretty tough on us, but also loves us and wants to see us do better. And F minus Bob saw that red writing on his paper and then did that other thing, which is say, come to my office every Tuesday. Even when Bob had gotten his grades up to a C and wanted to stop, he said, there's more to do.

You can do better. And Bob had the grace and the decency to call her up. And all of that writing work paid off while he was in law school and the mere act of thanking her made her cry. And we should all call the Mrs. Varners in our lives or Ms. Varners in our lives more often and thank them because too often, well, they never get the call.

I know my dad was one of those people. He was an amazing teacher and some people actually called and I saw the difference it made to what I thought was an unsentimental man. When we come back more with Bob Norton here on Our American Story. Hey, you guys, this is Tori and Jenny with the 90210MG podcast. We have such a special episode brought to you by NerdTechODT. We recorded it at iHeart Radio's 10th poll event, Wango Tango. Did you know that NerdTechODT, Ramejipant 75 milligrams can help migraine sufferers still attend such an exciting event like Wango Tango? It's true. I had one that night and I took my NerdTechODT and I was present and had an amazing time. Here's a little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends. This episode was brought to you by NerdTechODT, Ramejipant 75 milligrams.

Life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully NerdTechODT, Ramejipant 75 milligrams is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines in adults. So lively events like Wango Tango don't have to be missed. Soon millions will make Medicare coverage decisions for next year and UnitedHealthcare can help you feel confident about your choices. For those eligible, Medicare annual enrollment runs from October 15th through December 7th. If you're working past age 65, you might be able to delay Medicare enrollment depending on your employer coverage.

It can seem confusing, but it doesn't have to be. Visit uhcmedicarehealthplans.com to learn more. UnitedHealthcare, helping people live healthier lives. I know everything there is to know about running a coffee shop, but for small business insurance, I need my State Farm agent. They make sure my business stays piping hot and I stay cool and confident. See, they're small business owners too, so they know how to help you best. State Farm is in your corner and on it. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

Call your local State Farm agent for a quote today. And we return to our American stories and our story of Bob Norton, Hillsdale College's General Counsel. Let's continue with his story. Bob became a highly accomplished attorney who specialized in, excelled at, and loved the art of negotiation, which took him to his next role at Visteon, a major automotive parts supplier. The fun thing about that company is it had been spun off from Ford and so everything was up for renegotiation. And I had become trained in negotiations at University of Michigan, take a part in some training programs then at Harvard. And I really liked negotiation, and that had been on my resume as something I liked doing. So Stacy Fox was the General Counsel. I liked Stacy.

Stacy also went to Michigan Law School. And Stacy said, okay, you're going to be the principal negotiator, whatever that is. And so I got to negotiate with all of these companies on significant contracts worldwide. And so we got in a bitter dispute with Microsoft about the license for all of our laptop, software, servers, everything. Microsoft said that the license agreement with Ford was invalid and we needed entirely new license agreements. And so I had a pitched battle with the lawyer for Microsoft and it went on for months.

Lots of funny exchanges between us because she was very determined she was going to win and I was pretty determined I was going to win. And eventually I had to escalate it to Ford management. I had not escalated any other Visteon issue, but I escalated it to the Ford management as to, look, we got a problem here with Microsoft.

I need you to help me. And they said, well, Bill Gates is coming on Monday. So I went back to my office and called my arch rival and said, look, out of professional courtesy, I want to let you know Bill Gates is going to be here Monday. And this is going to be the number one issue.

She was equally startled to hear that Bill Gates was coming on Monday. And she said, you know, let me get back with you. So about 20 minutes or so after that, I get a phone call from this very obsequious vice president for Microsoft saying, Mr. Norton, I understand we have a little disagreement between us. I'd love to get this worked out. And I said, yeah, I think we're past the point of just working it out.

We've been at war for a long time. I'm going to need to hear from your counsel that she agrees this matter is completely worked out and that there's no legal issues still as to our license agreement. He goes, let me get right back with you. A few minutes later, my phone rang and it was the woman I'd been dealing with. And I said, look, there's nothing personal between us. And she read like the script. I am calling to let you know, there is no further remaining issues between our company and Microsoft. And I went on to explain, look, let's just say at some point in the future, we'll get together and laugh about this. And there was a dial tone.

She hung up on me. Bob was on a fast track as successful as he was. And as much as he loved his work, the impersonal and short term focus of the corporate world left him dissatisfied and unfulfilled. The untimely death of a close family member caused Bob to reflect on his career. Was he headed in the same direction?

Was his life on the same track? My father-in-law, unfortunately, passed away at 56 years old as an executive at EDS. And he died on a weekday.

I don't remember exactly. Let's say it was a Tuesday. And my mother-in-law received a phone call, let's say it was Friday, relatively few days later, asking if she could please come by the office and pick up his things. Well, my mother-in-law, still in shock from this car accident and death, arrived there and the, I guess, temporary receptionist or assistant showed her back to where the boxes were put outside of his office and inside through the glass walls of the office, she could see the new person who was on the phone with his back door and the new name on the door. And that left a pretty indelible impression on me that in the corporate world, you know, you're here one day, you're gone tomorrow, new name on the door, new person filling the role. You better not be getting too much of your fulfillment out of the fact that, you know, you have carried this place on your shoulders and but for you, it would exist. It turned out EDS apologized and said it was a temporary person and they should not have called her and bothered her. But it made the point to me that that's really what does happen, you know, okay, who else do we have?

And thanks, you know, we're on to the next person. It wasn't just that Bob was afraid he would be a cog in a big machine. There were other drivers. Remember, Bob is the descendant of a long line of preachers. Their values, his values, percolated in him.

Bob was at a fork in the road. He consulted a family confidant. When making that decision in 2009, my uncle, I have an uncle who's been pretty financially successful. When I was asking some of his advice about the career path, he said, you know, you have to determine at some point when is enough, enough on the monetary side and when is it the other things you're looking for fulfillment out of and you alone can decide where that balance is.

And that was pretty profound. That was something that Kathy and I both thought about, okay, where is the right amount of compensation coupled with a sense of mission the right place to be? And so Kathy and I sat on our couch and overlooked the lake where we happened to live at the time. And looking out of the lake and thinking deep thoughts, we decided which direction is the best direction for our life. And we decided it was time to take the more mission-driven path. And that path ultimately has led to Hillsdale.

After careful thought, consideration and consultation with his wife, Bob took the road less traveled. The road that led to a small town in rural Michigan that is the home to a liberal arts college founded by abolitionists in 1844. I think Hillsdale stands for a constitutional way of life and understanding of the founding documents that has been forgotten in far too many sectors of our society. The unique place that Hillsdale holds is a promise to educate our country and the citizens as to the freedoms and liberties which they should expect and which they could enjoy.

And Hillsdale is also a unique place. You know, my daughter ended up going to college here at Hillsdale and graduating. And along the way, it was truly amazing to watch the difference it made in her life and the way it shaped her into the fine person that she is. I remember the first semester, Kathy and I thought that Katie would probably not be going back to Hillsdale College because she was suffering greatly under the increased workload and expectation level of Hillsdale College. She had been a fine high school student by the public school system that she went to.

It was a fine public school system. And she had like a 3.8% high school grade point and was on the executive student council and honor society and, you know, just thought she was a pretty darn good student. That's what gave her the confidence to come here. And when there was a rude awakening that the level was at a much higher level than she anticipated and it was hard to reach it, we were surprised and relieved when she went back after the first Christmas break of the first year. But her determination to have to adjust to whatever it was to help her get by is really a credit to her because in the end she ended up getting four points. Many of her later years she had an outstanding psychology thesis that she put forward and was even able to get a summer internship and expand that a little further and make a presentation of it.

So she hung in there. But many people experienced that first year of Hillsdale. I guess other schools are known for their freshman 15. Hillsdale is known for a freshman rude awakening in some people's minds that they're not just going to always get all A's. My other two sons went to Pepperdine University, which is a fine university, but I think that it was our conclusion that Katie was receiving a better education at Hillsdale.

She was more solid on things that we thought were important, not just including history and the Constitution, but also just receiving a very fine education. Bob found his home at Hillsdale College. His love for the school, their mission, and the students reinforce and validate every day his decision to leave the corporate world for a more mission-driven life. The students here are really wonderful.

Our first semester here we've moved into a campus house they were kind enough to let us land in while we figured out the area and figured out where we wanted to live. And we had a dog. We had a dog. We had a dog. We had a dog. We had a dog. And we were going to be doing some traveling, so we wanted somebody to watch the dog. So I put up some notice on a bulletin board that just said, you know, dog watcher wanted, you know, dog walker and watcher wanted. And we went away somewhere and we came back.

We had all these messages on our answering machine, and they sounded like people applying for White House positions. Mr. and Mrs. Norton, I saw your posting. I'm wondering if perhaps I could drop by and meet your dog, perhaps go on a trial run with the dog, and then talk with both of you about your expectations for the dog walking. After about the third one, I stopped the tape and told Kathy, it's a dog walking position. But, you know, it's the way things are done here. You know, things are expected to be done in a proper way. I have some rental housing around the area, and the students are so polite and respectful. It really is a joy, you know. It's usually Mr. Norton and Mrs. Norton-ness.

And even if something's broken, they try very hard to stay civil and say, could you please get this working? We often comment about how, when the students go to lunch, they mark the seat they want to sit at with either their iPhone or their iPad or their wallet, and then walk out of sight, go stand in line to go get their food, knowing that when they get back, nothing's been disturbed. And it's that kind of a unique place. It gives you a lot of faith in the leaders of tomorrow when you're around the Hillsdale campus. And you've been listening to Bob Norton's story and what a story indeed.

Again, if you have stories about friends, a college, a town, whatever it might be, send them to OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. And by the way, I teach at Hillsdale every year for two weeks. Bob Norton is so right. The place is special. We're proud to have Hillsdale as sponsors. I'm proud to know Bob Norton and call him a friend. Bob Norton's story here on Our American Stories.