20/12/2024
"There's so much work to be done in mental health"
Dr Norma Emerton (21 May 1932 – 30 August 2018)
Student 1969-1975 | Senior Member 1981-1994 | Fellow 1994-1999 | Emeritus Fellow 1999-2018
A graduate in chemistry from Oxford, Norma (pictured at this year's Halfway drinks reception) was a member of Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çfor almost 50 years. She came to Cambridge in 1968 as the wife of the late Reverend Professor John A Emerton (1928-2015), Emeritus Regius Professor of Hebrew.
She returned to academic life after raising their three children and her association with the College began when she joined as a post-graduate student in 1969. She gained her PhD in ‘The background of chemical theory to crystal studies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’ in 1975.
Norma taught for the Department of History & Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge for many years and served as Senior Tutor of Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çfrom 1994 to 1999. Her most recent research centred on the relationship between late pagan and early Christian science, philosophy and theology in late antiquity.
Norma was Secretary and then President of the Society of Emeritus Fellows and was a regular, engaging and convivial presence in, and contributor to, College life for many years. She will be greatly missed by everyone at Wolfson, Fellows, students and staff alike. She is survived by her three children, Caroline, Mark and Lucy.
There will be a funeral at St Mark’s Church and a reception in Â鶹ËÞÉáµçÊÓ¾çCollege afterwards; details will be announced soon. The College flag was flown at half-mast yesterday in memory of Norma.
