Centralia city councilors and staff overwhelmingly described City Light General Manager M.L. Norton as a “leader and a gentleman” during his retirement recognition at the council meeting Tuesday evening.
Tears were shed from the eyes of those behind the dais, and the short ceremony concluded with a standing ovation from everyone in the room for a man who spent 12 years in Centralia keeping the lights on.
“I truly appreciate each and every one of you,” Norton told the council. “Keep us in your prayers, as I’ll keep you in mine.”
Norton, 69, began his job in Centralia on Feb. 4, 2013, and will work his final day on Monday, Sept. 15 before he is off to retirement. While managing the city light department, he also oversaw the Yelm Hydroelectric Project. He was raised in Lovington, New Mexico, and attended the United States Naval Academy, where entered the nuclear power program and was trained as a submarine officer. He served for five years in the Navy before returning to his hometown to work as an engineer trainee with Lee County Electric Cooperative. Seven years later, he worked at an engineering firm in Greeley, Colorado, and another seven years later, he served as a project manager in Redmond, Oregon, where he worked for over 15 years.
Then, he began his tenure in Centralia, where he currently manages about 40 people, including a line crew, a substation group, an engineering group, and administration, among other staff.
“We have a really strong line crew. They’re the guys that go out and build the distribution lines and they put up the wires,” Norton said. “They’re tasked with keeping the lights on.”
Norton fell in love with the power industry because he said it gave him a sense that he was a public servant, which Centralia Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston also called him a public servant that she holds in the highest regard. Over the course of his career, he said the projects that he is proudest of are helping build two earthquake-resistant substations in Centralia, along with overseeing the Yelm Hydro Electric Project, a 12-plus megawatt project.
He and his wife of 46 years Lena began discussing his potential retirement within the last year after he admitted he had never quite considered it before.
“She’s my best friend,” Norton said of his wife. “She said, ‘Why don’t you think about retirement?’ It’s not something I’ve really planned that much for, but now as I’m just days away from it, I’m really excited about it. You get to travel some and visit friends. You can go to Costco in the middle of the day, maybe when nobody’s there. There’s some advantages.”
While Norton and his wife don’t have many concrete travel plans yet, they are planning to travel to Palm Springs to watch their granddaughters, aged 12 and 16, compete in a lacrosse tournament in January.
Norton described the past couple of months as “a bit of a rollercoaster” with retirement creeping closer.
“I really enjoyed my job and really enjoyed the people that I’ve worked with. I’d like to see the grandkids grow up, get married and maybe have some great grandkids,” he said. “I’m just so thankful to accomplish the things that we had hoped to do in so many areas.”
Willie Wright, who was hired in April, will replace Norton in an interim basis once Norton is officially retired.
“Willie Wright is an excellent man. I’ve enjoyed getting to know him in the past few months,” Norton said. “I wish him the best.”
Councilor Norm Chapman, a neighbor of Norton’s, gifted the retiring general manager a book he authored titled “The Retirement Life of M.L. Norton” during Tuesday’s recognition.
“I can see into your retirement future very explicitly. So I put together a book for you. It’s a one-of-a-kind here,” Chapman joked. “This is what your future brings. After looking at it, you might want to come back to work instead. It’s been a pleasure working with you.”
City Manager Michael Thomas also gifted Norton a plaque and multiple books. Councilor Mark Westley got emotional as he thanked Norton for his leadership and vision through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You were so calm and composed. You had a plan and you had a vision with retrofitting and doing the things that you did with the substations,” Westley said. “I think we were way ahead of the curve. We’re better off because of your leadership. Our community is a better community because of your leadership. I hate to see you go.”
