Lawrence A. Norton, MD, age 78 and a resident of Dedham, Massachusetts for the past 38 years, died on Wednesday May 13, 2009 at the Newton Wellesley Hospital following a sudden cardiac arrest.

Dr. Norton was born in Orange, New Jersey on June 1, 1930. He attended Carteret School in West Orange, New Jersey, graduated from the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut in 1948, and attended Yale University from where he graduated with the Class of 1952. He received his Medical Degree from New York Medical College in 1956 and interned at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan for one year. In 1957, he was commissioned a Captain in the US Air Force and was stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts for two years. After being discharged from the Air Force, he returned to New Jersey for a year of Residency at the Morristown Memorial Hospital. He then opened a general practice in Mendham, New Jersey where he lived until 1966.

In 1966 Dr. Norton moved to Medfield, Massachusetts and became a Resident in Dermatology at Boston University. Following five years of research and continuing study, he opened a private practice in Dermatology in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts which he maintained for 27 years, retiring in 1998. During his years of retirement, Dr. Norton pursued his passion for drawing and painting with watercolors, gardening, travel and literature.

While he was in practice in Wellesley Hills, he was also Clinical Professor of Dermatology at Boston University. For 16 years, he was the Permanent Secretary of the Atlantic Dermatological Conference. He also served terms as Vice President of both the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Dermatological Association. He published numerous papers and articles dealing with diseases of the nail, his chosen field of specialty. In 1998, Dr. Norton was awarded the Clark W. Finnerud Award by the Dermatology Foundation as a Dermatologist who “most skillfully blends clinical practice with writing and teaching dermatology and thereby serves as a mentor and a role model.”

Dr. Norton was a member of the Vestry of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Dedham, a three time member of the Board of the Dedham Country and Polo Club and a member of the Yale Class of 1952 Class Council.

Dr Norton was the husband for 55 years of Mary Hammond Norton and the Father of Lawrence Alleyn Norton and his wife Melissa, Samuel Hammond Norton and his wife Panita, and Anne Norton Groves and her husband Richard. He was the grandfather of Alexandra Norton, Taylor, Noah and Owen Norton, and Audrey and Catherine Groves.

Service in his memory will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Dedham, Massachusetts on Friday May 29th at 11:00am. Burial services will be private for family members only. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to the St. Pauls Church in Dedham

Reproduced with the kind permission of the Easton Funeral Home, Needham, Massachusetts