Norval grew up as one of eight brothers and two sisters near Thermopolis, Wyoming. He served four years in the Air Force.
Norval was one of five brothers who all joined the LDS Church. His brother Ken got him started, and his brother Lyle baptized him in the Tokyo, Japan mission home, while Norval was in the Air Force and Lyle was in the Army. Norval's first LDS calling was to go through his air base's record books, find the men that had given any indication they were LDS, and invite them to the local Sunday School class. That grew the mentioned Sunday School class from a handful to about fifty regular attenders.
One of the men Norval found was Donald Hurst, who got him started writing letters to his sister Virginia who lived in Salt Lake City. When Norval left the Air Force he traveled straight to Salt Lake instead of Thermopolis, and they were married in the Salt Lake LDS Temple on 3 April 1953.
They lived in Kaysville and Centerville in Utah for three years. In 1956 the Boeing Company hired Norval as a research mechanic, and he, Virginia, and their first two children, Dan and Joyce, moved to Skyway, Washington (a Seattle suburb), before moving to the White Center neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, where their four other children, Kevin, Shirlee, Deloy, and Randy were born.
Norval had many callings in the LDS Church, including financial clerk, scoutmaster, and a seventy (responsible for missionary work), and he served as first counselor in his ward's bishopric with Bishop Larry Watkins. After he retired from Boeing he served a retirement mission with Virginia in the LDS employment office in Renton.
After Virginia died in January 1999, Norval married Sheila Shaffer, and they lived together until she died seven years later.
When he died, Norval had six children, twenty-four grandchildren, and sixteen great-grandchildren.
Norval's trademark humor is probably best summarized with his standard line to introduce himself: "I'm Norval, more than Orville, and not quite normal."
Norval's funeral home is Yarington's White Center Funeral Home at 10708 16th Ave SW, in Seattle. There will be a memorial service for Norval 17 May at 5:00 at the LDS Seattle Stake Center at 14022 Ambaum Blvd SW, Burien WA.
