Thank you, Norma!

Norma Sporn was a talented and committed L.A. art teacher who traveled the world, collected folk art and was a lifelong member of the Sierra Club. She also was a political activist for progressive causes that were close to her heart.

Norma died at 86 in December, and left the Chapter a generous gift.

Norma received a BA in Art Education in 1948 and taught art at Nightingale Junior High School. She received a Bravo Award in 1985 for her extraordinary classroom achievements. As an artist in her own right, she made jewelry and was an active member of the Bead Society and the Craft & Folk Art Museum.

Her cousin Paula Ellis remembers her this way:

"In 1958 my family moved from Iowa to Los Angeles. I was 6 years old. I was so excited to learn that I had a cousin Norma that lived in Hollywood!

"The first time I met Norma she was unlike the rest of my family. She wore brightly colored flowing skirts and wore large bold jewelry. She lived in an apartment with a swimming pool. She drove a Volkswagen Beetle."

Inside and outside the classroom, Norma's beliefs about human dignity and civil liberties for all ran deep. Her cousins Paula Ellis and Marty Steiner write:

We would like to express to the Sierra Club membership our cousin Norma's lifelong commitment to upholding & defending human rights & civil liberties and preserving & protecting the environment.  Throughout her long life, she was in countless peace marches, rallies for woman's rights and meetings to promote international action on human & civil rights.

She was undaunted and relentless in her devotion to these causes.  As a world traveler, many times over, she had an opportunity to see firsthand the horrors that we have perpetrated upon ourselves and our planet -- and yet she saw the breathtaking beauty and compassion that still shined through it all!! 

As an accomplished artist, teacher and social critic, her global observations never ceased to enlighten us and entertain us. Although we all feel the enormous loss of her passing, her humanitarian legacy is woven into the very fabric of our family's history -- that tapestry will be with us for many generations to come."

We can ask nothing more of our members than to help us make the world and the environment a better place. Thanks Norma.